142 THE ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE MIDDLE AGES
overlooked to some extent. Few, however, are aware of one other quar-
ter to which mason artisans have long held a traditional attachment: the
Hotel de Ville neighborhood.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, this is where masons lived
in order to find employment. In a work that was published in 1840^64
we can read the following text, illustrated by an engraving made from
a daguerreotype:
During ordinary times, when it is not troubled by moments of pub-
lic unrest, the Place de Greve is fairly calm but still not in a state
of perfect tranquility. This is the place where workers, primarily
masons in search of employment, have chosen to rendezvous...
Around six in the morning one can see a crowd of individuals
emerging from all the tiny streets in the neighborhood of the
square. They are all clad in a garb that, because of its many
patches, would rival the clothes of a harlequin if it were not for the
whitish layer that is uniformly spread atop the garments' surface.
They all carry on their backs what could be well called their
insignia: a small basket inside of which sits a wooden spade whose
handle emerges from a small hole contrived in the back of the bas-
ket. This is how the entrepreneurs who come there in search of
workers recognize the men they need."In 1835 the name of rue de la Mortellerie was changed to rue de
l'Hotel de Ville. But it's character still remained that of rue de la
Mortellerie. Before the concerns of hygiene and urbanization that fol-
lowed the Second World War led to the razing of this old quarter, at that
time referred to by the bureaucratic title of insalubrious block number 16,
numerous suppliers of mason's tools—trowels, brollys, squares, plumb-
lines—could be found there, as was the case during the time of the mortar
makers.^65 There were also numerous rooming houses where many of
these workers in stone, plaster, and cement lived. Being for the most part
natives of the provinces of central France who had come to Paris to ply
their trades, these men were popularly known as ligorgneaux or limousins.
The names of several of hotels in the area are quite significant in this
regard: no. 7, Restaurant du Batiment; no. 33, Au rendezvous de la Haute