The main building at 22 rue Réveillère was set back from the alignment of a row of merchant houses built before 1545 on the landward side (the seaward plots were subdivided from 1560). This setback was due to the pre-existing Saint-Ninien Chapel (15th century) on the seafront, whose use likely required a forecourt to give air to its entrance — a kind of open-air gathering space in the medieval tradition. During the 17th century (before 1730), the house was extended with two return wings, splitting the former small square in two. Its northern section became the current house’s forecourt. The ruined chapel was demolished in 1932 to build a new quay, later extended with a land-fill platform in 1945, giving the house an important urban status as the focal point of a vista reclaimed from the sea.

The main building was set back from the alignment to create a forecourt in front of the pre-existing Saint-Ninien Chapel.
The construction of the two wings probably divided this small square into two parts, privatizing the corresponding courtyard. Given the persistence of the same forms in the cadastral maps of 1811 and 1846, it is possible that the return wings were built at around that time.