Claude de Ramezay, the 11th governor of the colony, built his residence at this site in 1705. The château was the home of the city's royal French governors for almost 4 decades, but in 1745, Ramezay's heirs sold it to a trading company, who left parts of the original structure but altered others considerably. Fifteen years later, it was taken over by the British conquerors. In 1775, an army of American revolutionaries invaded and held Montréal, using the château as their headquarters. Benjamin Franklin, sent to persuade the Québecois to rise with the American colonists against British rule, stayed in the château for a time, but failed to persuade the city's people to join his cause. After the American interlude, the house was used as a courthouse, a government office building, a teachers' college, and headquarters for Laval University, before being converted into a museum in 1895. Old coins and prints, portraits, furnishings, tools, a loom, Amerindian artifacts, and other memorabilia related to the economic and social activities of the 18th and first half of the 19th century fill the main floor. In the cellar are the vaults of the original house. Descriptive placards appear in both French and English. The museum was closed recently for 6 months for renovations, and reopened with restored garden and cafe.