The first holiday residences of Houlgate were built between 1859 and 1865. The Caen architect Jacques Baumier led the construction of around forty houses on the left bank of the Drochon in the primitive village. As early as 1865, the first tourist guides presented this unprecedented phenomenon of seaside architecture as a tourist attraction comparable to the great monuments. The typology and style of the constructions marked the triumph of an architectural eclecticism that borrows from Switzerland, England, or Italy and adapts Gothic, Renaissance, or classical elements in complete freedom.