From his new house just two and a half miles outside Québec, surveyor-general Samuel Holland observed the 1769 transit of Venus together with S. Germain of the Québec Seminary. In March, when he moved in, he started determining the latitude and longitude of the place right away. On the day of the transit, he could time first contact, but the observation of the second contact was prevented by intervening clouds. The house of Holland was demolished in 1843 and replaced by a new residence, which in turn was torn down in 1967 to make place for the YWCA.
The house of Samuel Holland along The cupola served as an astronomical observatory, (from: http://www.transitofvenus.nl/history.html)
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