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The name "Memorial House" (maison des mémoires) given recently to no. 53 Rue de Verdun is fully justified by memories of Joë Bousquet who was seriously wounded in 1918 and remained a paraplegic until his death in 1950. In 1925, the wounded poet moved into the central part of this building where, in the bedroom with its constantly closed shutters still kept as it was in his lifetime, he devoted himself to the "life of the spirit", receiving visits from talented writers such as René Nelli, André Gide, Louis Aragon, Jean Paulhan and others. The recently restored building is much older. The buildings furthest away in Rue de Verdun date from the 17th or even 16th centuries while the most recent section along the street can be dated, at least in part, from the 18th century.

On 29th August 1764, the construction comprising "adjacent house, outbuilding and stable forming a single unit" was purchased by Pierre Dupré. The rapid description given in the deed of sale clearly indicates the three sections visible today, and the two courtyards separating them. The sale was concluded at a price of 15,000 livres and the deed tells us that the apartment included three large chambers (dining room with tapestry, drawing room and bedroom), each decorated with fireplaces adorned with gilded piers. In all, there were ten fire plaques and, therefore, a dozen rooms. Although the furnishings, estimated to have a value of 700 livres, has now disappeared, the superb 16th and 17th-century French style ceilings can still be admired on the first floor.

Since 1759 Pierre Dupré had been a partner of Jean-Jacques Fornier at the head of the royal factory in La Trivalle. However, in 1764, he set up his own business as a merchant and manufacturer and, with his son Joseph, he soon became one of the largest local enterprises with an annual turnover of some 100,000 livres. This led to his nomination as First Consul in 1775. His son was to become a "member of parliament" at the States General in 1789, then Mayor of Carcassonne in 1791-1792.

Royal factories such as La Trivalle accounted for less than 15% of fabric production in the region. Most of the cloth was produced by companies such as the one set up by Dupré. Like the fifty or more other merchant-manufacturers in the town in the mid 18th century, Dupré ran his business in the same way as Jean-François Boyer ran his from the Hôtel Franc de Cahuzac. The advantages of the system were twofold. The manufacturer kept his investment in equipment to a minimum since it was owned or rented by the workers whereas in a royal factory the machinery cost approximately 8,000 livres. If the economic climate became difficult, the manufacturer had no layoff problems. He simply stopped placing orders with the workers who were dependent upon him for their livelihood.

Joseph Dupré moved out of the business sector during the French Revolution and, four years after his death in 1827, the residence belonged to Portal de Moux. It became the seat of the Cercle du Salon, a meeting-place for Carcassonne's high society until 1934. This changing situation is highly symbolic, for the members of the Cercle were landowners and people of independent means, the descendents of the 18th-century manufacturers. As to the local textile industry, it died out in the second half of the 19th century. The various parts of the building now house a museum devoted to Joë Bousquet, the Groupe Audois de Recherche et d'Animation Ethnologique, the Centre d'Etudes Cathares and several exhibition halls, making it a quite outstanding cultural centre.

Claude Marquié – Carcassonne; Hôtels et maisons du Moyen Age à la Révolution - Amicale laïque de Carcassonne – 1998.

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