Celine Dion’s childhood home in Quebec has been demolished, much to the chagrin of local residents who had hoped a money-making museum would be established on the site.
The Dion family is reassuring residents that part of the superstar songstress will remain in the Montreal suburb of Charlemagne, as the home will be replaced with a building to house her charity, Fondation Maman Dion. Above the charity’s offices will be two condominiums that will be put up for sale.
Workers demolished the home on Friday, and remained at the site this week to clean up the rubble.
“I feel bad,” one resident told CTV Montreal. “Celine was born inside, with all the family.”
Many local residents had wanted the home to be converted into a museum, which would have helped the local economy.
“If you make something for Celine here, this is good for Charlemagne,” another local resident said. “The tourist is coming, everyone is coming.”
Another resident said “lots of Americans” visit the town to see the house, and now they won’t find anything.
However, the family says that’s not quite true. A new building will replace the home, with the ground floor reserved for the offices of Fondation maman Dion. Two of the singer’s sisters work at the charity, which the family started to help underprivileged children.
“La maison was deconstructed on the inside to make a window-and-door store,” one sister, Claudette Dion, said of their childhood home. “It really didn’t look like it did when we lived there.”
The family also felt that the small town couldn’t handle the traffic that an official museum would bring.
“It was a small space, a small house. It needed a big space to accommodate many, many people,” said Claudette Dion.
“It just wasn’t possible.”
She adds that there’s talk of a Celine Dion museum going up in Las Vegas, where the singer had a long-standing concert residency.
With a report from CTV Montreal’s Aphrodite Salas
