THE LOW, PINK HOUSE AT STE. MARGUERITE

There is a long low pink-washed building on the sands at a place called Ste. Marguerite, in Mayaro. The building is near the sea, close to other houses under the coconut palms, and beside it is a road that runs for nearly a mile, and this road is called Hingwan Road.

The long, low building looks like the traditional Chinese shop, and if these three key words do not give a clue as to what is significant about this building, the words: Chinese Shop, Mayaro, and Hingwan Road, then one might as well speak out. The long, low, pinkish building was the home of the child who grew up to be Trinidad’s celebrated water-colour painter, Edwin Hingwan.

Edwin was born at Mayaro in the year 1932, and attended Mayaro Roman Catholic School. In 1946, when he was 14 he left Mayaro to attend Queen’s Royal, and here is where the dominant passion of his life, water-colour painting, took possession of him. And he might have been happy, flitting from point to point, executing his drawings and colouring them, had not fate reserved a particularly unkind blow for him — he was struck down by a nervous disorder, like poliomyelitis, that all but crippled him.

Yet this did not stop his aggressive spirit to paint. In spite of his disability he has painted scores of the beautiful and pastoral Mayaro scenes, the scenes of lagoons and driftwood, scenes of blue sea and silvery sand, and seine-boats riding the breakers, If it is one feature this water-colour painter has contributed it is to take the scenes of Mayaro to art lovers all over the world.

For his work was admired, became popular, and much sought after. During the closing months of his life, when he realized he could not be around for much longer, he seemed to paint frantically, but his work showed no loss of quality.

Edwin Hingwan, as the excellent water-colour artist he was, and with a heart so devoted to the Mayaro landscape, will remain the chief figure in Mayaro. Although he died in 1976, his reputation remains high, and his work has gone all round the world. And thus the long, low, pinkish house is of great significance, for it reminds of a water-colour painter whose name will never fade in Mayaro.

Copyright NALIS, 2010

LOYOLA HOUSE, LAST HOME OF MAXWELL PHILLIP

In an obituary on the death of Michel Maxwell Phillip published in the Port-of-Spain Gazette in early July 1888, the last line says: He died suddenly at his home “Loyola” at Diego Martin.

Imagine then, that a reader living, for many years, less than a quarter of a mile away on the Long Circular Road, would one day, casually walking by, lift his head and spot on the wall of one of the houses, the word: LOYOLA.Yes, that was the mansion in which Maxwell Phillip lived — and died.

Until that moment one had hardly considered that the Long Circular Road might be in Diego Martin, only to realize at this point that that section of Long Circular Road was indeed in the Ward of Diego Martin.

So that was the Loyola, a grandiose house, large and set back from the Long Circular Road, with ample front gardens upon which fruit trees jostle for space. This was the house where one of the great figures of Trinidad history lived at the height of his career.

The house itself cannot be seen perfectly from the road. The wall is too high. And even if there was no wall the house could not be seen clearly for the fruit trees.

Who was Maxwell Phillip? Maxwell Phillip was many things, but regarding his career he was a prominent lawyer and legislator. He grew up at Cupar Grange Estate, South Naparima. He studied both in Scotland and England and he read law at the Middle Temple in London. He was called to the Bar in London in 1854 and in 1855 he returned to Trinidad. He was also an author, and wrote what is regarded as Trinidad’s first work of fiction: Emanuel Apodaca.

Copyright NALIS, 2010

THE OLD “LONDON ELECTRIC CINEMA”

The old London Electric Cinema is one of the most significant early 20th century houses in Port-of-Spain. It stands on the eastern fringes of Woodbrook and was the first truly public building in that sector of Port-of-Spain. However, its claim to attention was that it was the first cinema in Trinidad.

When it was built in 1911, Woodbrook was still constructing its streets, and those particular streets amongst which it found itself were named for generals of the Boer War, a war which had ended in 1902. It was built on French Street, the street passing in front of its doors, and on its northern side and running westerly was Baden-Powell Street.

This cinema opened on February 2, 1911, and it was an evening that was rainy, but wonderful, emotional and exciting, and it saw great crowds converge on the building to see the first film (or series of films) shown in Trinidad. It was called: “The World before Your Eyes.”

Although this building was called the first cinema in Trinidad, its function was of a cinema-theatre. It was a cinema in that it was built to show films, but it also gave its stage to performers such as singers, dancers, instrumentalists, actors, stuntmen, and even roadside magic-men. The celebrated Spanish singer, Madame Patti, had so many seasons there that it appeared she did not want to leave it.

Throughout its early years competing cinemas came and went but the London Electric Cinema continued its role. Later on, when electricity became commonplace and not the “electric” word it was in 1911, it changed its name to the Astor Cinema. It continued to do well until near the end of the 20th century when it began to wilt. For the cinema industry was not what it was, and perhaps we could say bold and rugged pioneers like the men who started it were now nowhere to be found.

But the building is still there, maybe dreaming of that night of February 2, 1911, when big crowds came on that rainy night to see “The World before Your Eyes.”

Copyright NALIS, 2010

OLD POST OFFICE AT SANGRE GRANDE

The Old Post Office at Sangre Grande may not look it but is one of the oldest buildings within a quarter-mile radius of the Police Station. And it appeared on the scene even before the Police Station, being one of the very first public buildings in Sangre Grande.

Sangre Grande was then a little village known as Cunapo. It is the area in the centre of the old Cunapo that the oldest buildings in Sangre Grande can be found.

Almost all the old buildings in that area have now gone; some destroyed by fire, others by the sheer passage of time, and the area itself, apart from the roadways, has been transformed.

The building under review, undistinguished and ill kept, has weathered the storm of many hectic days, for the Sangre Grande railway station is just next door. Indeed, this post office building was erected in the year after the railway came to Sangre Grande - 1898. It became suddenly lonely, hearing neither the whistle nor seeing the usual bustle when the Sangre Grande line of the Trinidad Government Railways was cut off in 1954.

The grand and wonderful railway terminus, which was a station drawing not only the people from Sangre Grande but from the entire east of Trinidad, had made Sangre Grande special, and the Post Office beside it gave added prestige. When they started to build the Police Station in 1901 - a station that was demolished in 2005 and replaced on the site of the old one - Sangre Grande became a veritable star of the east.

The reason for this was simply because there were no proper roads leading from Sangre Grande to Arima and Port-of-Spain, or to anywhere for that matter, at that point of time. Nor had motor vehicles come on the scene. For we are referring to the period 1898 to 1901, and proper roads followed by motor vehicles plying for hire had to await the 1920 decade. And people from the area could not travel by sea, because Cunapo - to become Sangre Grande - was not on the coast. When the Trinidad Government Railway came to this region it was the first time crowds could get on the train and ride into town.

So one could imagine how significant a Post Office can be at such a place and at such a time. The people of Cunapo depended on this Post Office. But they could never have known it was going to remain functioning for a hundred years, and although its postal business has recently ceased, this building is still standing and perhaps has not yet come to the end of its day.

Copyright NALIS, 2010

ON THE SITE OF THE HILTON WAS THE SECOND GOVERNMENT HOUSE

Sir Thomas Hislop, who in 1803 succeeded Sir Thomas Picton as governor of Trinidad, fled the Great Fire and went to his country home, from which he administered the government.

His country home was named “Belmont,” after his house in England. That country home occupied just a little part of the site of today’s Trinidad Hilton.

Hislop did not have a very happy time at that country home. It was a ramshackle house, leaking somewhat, but he tried to make the most of it. He left in 1811, apparently because the owners, a family known as Barry, wanted back the house. However, Hislop passed it to his successor, Ralph Woodford, without consulting them, and the Barry family intensified their efforts to get the house back. The matter went to the Privy Council and in 1818 the Privy Council declared against Woodford. Now he had to go.

Woodford looked about him. In looking westerly there were two abandoned sugar estates - one called Paradise, owned by the heirs of Henri Peschier, and the other, more to the northward, called Hollandais. To the south of him there was not much. Only a pasture, which, because the Government House was called “Belmont,” became, to all, Belmont Pasture. Just two decades ahead, after abolition of slavery, people would come here to settle down and the whole area would be known as “Belmont.”

But back to Governor Woodford who now had to leave the house “Belmont”. He went to the heirs of Peschier to ask if they would sell. They would, despite the complex situation regarding the people who had claims on the old estate. Eventually, the tangled situation was simplified and Woodford was able to buy, with the stipulation that in the middle of the old estate a burial ground must be kept for all members of the Peschier family.

After Woodford had the old estate cleared of cane stalks he decided that this wonderful terrain should be kept for the recreation of the townsfolk and for the pasturage of cattle. It would seem he already had the intention of buying Hollandais also, and he planned using the old estate house as a sort of cottage and for his government offices, and he thought of having a gardener - for he needed a gardener now - to go overseas and search for rare trees and plants so he could start botanic gardens on the old Hollandais estate.

The year was 1821 when Woodford moved down into the old Hollandais estate house, leaving Belmont House to the Barrys.

Copyright NALIS, 2010

THE FIRST HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY IN TOBAGO

The first House of Assembly in Tobago was erected in a period when there seemed to be peace at last, following the long, bloody session from the time the island was first settled in 1628 up to the British conquest of 1762.

After the British wrested Tobago from the French in 1762 a large number of settlers from Barbados came to Tobago to make it their home. Even more followed when the Treaty of Paris of 1763 confirmed Tobago as British.

These settlers called the bay “Barbados Bay.” They founded a town near to Lampsinsburgh, headquarters of the defeated Dutch and they called the settlement Georgetown, for the reigning British king, George III.

In October of that year, 1763, Tobago was declared to be an independent and self-governing territory, and a General Council was formed to administer it. Shortly before this council was formed Governor Robert Melville, head of the Grenada government, which now included Tobago, sent Alexander Brown to govern the island. He gave Brown the authority to establish a House of Assembly when he thought fit.

Governor Alexander Brown arrived in the island in November 1764. He saw that Tobago had already been divided into parishes and that a great deal of land had been sold and that the settlers were getting organised. He therefore deemed Tobago ready for a General Council. He selected 11 men to head the Legislative Council and General Assembly.

The Legislative Council and Assembly held its first meeting in Georgetown on April 16 that year, 1764. But matters were still unsettled, especially in the choice of a capital, for the House of Assembly could not be anywhere else. Since the British settlers from Barbados had given the name “Barbados Bay” to the bay where they came in, it was clear they wanted to remain close to the little town of Georgetown, but it seemed that the greater number of them preferred the Dutch-built Lampsinsburgh and wanted to settle in it. Since the Dutch had been defeated, and left, the British settlers even wished to change the name. Some of these settlers might have originally come from Scarorough in Yorkshire, for they changed the name of Lampsinsburgh to Scarborough. The Council and Assembly, which had met at Georgetown in April, 1768 now transferred this body to Scarborough in 1869, thereby making Scarborough the capital of Tobago.

But we have been hearing of the meeting of the Legislative Council and Assembly, but what about the physical House of Assembly? Maybe that could have waited, for there were a lot of other things to do. For instance after Scarborough was made the capital the members of the House of Assembly took steps to ensure its safety from attacks by ordering the building of Fort King George on high ground overlooking the town. They also introduced measures for the functioning and management not only of Scarborough but the whole of Tobago, and of course introduced laws for good governance of the people. This little period seemed to generate optimism for it coincided with an upsurge in the production of the main crops: sugar, rum, indigo, and cotton.

And Scarborough, the old Lampsinsburg, knew a sudden lease of life. It was only a small settlement with few people when the British captured it in 1762. Now it had a bustling population of about three thousand people.

But it did not yet have its House of Assembly. The building was started in 1821, and it was completed in 1825 during the administration of Governor F.P. Robinson. It was originally constructed as a Court House and Public Office, but since its business so much resembled matters pertaining to a House of Assembly, when it was completed it was called the House of Assembly.

Copyright NALIS, 2010

POST OFFICE THAT CHANGED A VILLAGE

The old Mayaro Post Office stands in ruins on Post Office Hill, Mayaro, in danger of collapse — a far cry from what it looked like in its days of splendour, a period of 27 years after it was built. For that was the time it lasted as a Post Office.

Today, in August 2008, this significant and historic building is in urgent need of repairs.

It must have been in the latter part of 1919 that a carpenter from neighbouring Radix set out to construct this building. His name was Phillip Xavier, then of a large family who seem to have disappeared from Radix. The Xaviers may have been proud to see Phillip take on this project of the Government Public Works Department, because in those days Mayaro was not “recognized.” Mayaro was a remote — but old — southeastern settlement, without a single road except the Mayaro Trace, a rough forest road from Mission (now Princes Town) which came out to Mayaro beach. Then, the only means of communication with Mayaro was by the coastal steamers.

And speaking of coastal steamers begins the story of the Post Office, a story which started several years before Phillip took up his tools. In fact we have to look back to 1894, when the Anglicans decided to build a church at Mayaro, with its then thriving centre, the village of Radix, essentially a place where the coastal steamers called for produce, but also a fishing village. The Anglican priest was Father Jardine, a livewire. He encouraged a postal service in Mayaro and used the church as a post office, and he himself handled the mails, with the aid of two little Cuffie girls.

Jardine stayed in Mayaro until 1913, when he was transferred by the Anglican church. By that time he was already recognized as the Postmaster for Mayaro, but the postal authorities had to hurry and build a Post Office because the incoming Anglican priest was not going to have his church so “defiled.”

When Jardine had retired, the two Cuffie girls, both in their 20s, were sent to Guayaguayare Post Office. When a post office was built at Radix, a post mistress was brought in from Arima. But almost immediately this post mistress became controversial. She cried out theft, alleging a break-in, but the authorities suspected otherwise.

It was a rule that all revenue-receiving offices had to be near to a police station, but because Radix was the village for Mayaro, it seemed to make more sense to have the post office at Radix even though for special reasons of security the police station had to be three miles away on the Naparima-Mayaro Road.

But not so now. The authorities decided the rules had to be obeyed. Shortly afterwards the master builder Phillip Xavier got the first big job; he had to build a post office in front of the police station.

The work was almost finished when they brought down a new post mistress from Arima, denying Miss Athill the new facilities. But the District Medical Officer, who was Armand Pampellone, protested, saying his duties had to do with life and death but he was living in a ramshackle, leaking house while the post mistress, who had no emergencies, had the new building.

The protest was upheld and the post mistress was made to wait. Soon afterwards, in 1918, to avail itself of suitable land to build a post office near to the police station, the Department of Health gave a lease to the post office department for 30 years, and the Mayaro Post Office was built. But the post mistress told to wait had to return to her substantial post. Who would be the new post mistress brought to Mayaro? It was then that the two sisters who had been sent to Guayaguayare came to the mind of the authorities — Alice and Olga Cuffie. Meantime Phillip Xavier had nearly finished this second building; it was almost ready to be painted. He had built it exactly like the one Dr Pampellone “usurped,” because Miss Best had said she wasn’t going into any other. It was a beautiful building and well sited.

This was the building Alice and Olga came to when the building was opened in early 1921. And this was a building that began important changes in Mayaro. For when the Post Office moved from Radix to what is now Pierreville, many people moved with it. But the movement became very pronounced when it was decided to move the Government School to Pierreville to join the other government buildings there.

The building, 87 years old this year, had not caught the attention of the government. When, around the year 2000, the Ministry of Health made a move to demolish it, a Mayaro Historical Society was formed to campaign for it, and the government of that day gave it to that society.

Copyright NALIS, 2010

QUEEN’S ROYAL COLLEGE: THE OPENING DAY

To many people Walsh Wrightson had designed the best building ever seen in Trinidad when he, through architect Daniel Hahn, had designed Queen’s Royal College. It is felt that the structure, which was built in 1904, has triumphed over all others in architectural lines.

Of course, architects won’t agree with this view, but what they would agree with is that it was an attractive building and in an earlier day, it was adequate for the demands made upon it. At present, in 2008, efforts are being made to increase its capacity, and to restore certain areas of it, but the old architecture—architecture in harmony with the original—is no more.

The foundation stone for Queen’s Royal College was laid by Courtenay Knowles, the then Colonial Secretary, on November 11 1902. Work went on steadily in 1903 and in early l904 finishing touches were put on the building and it was ready.

It was decided to open the college on the 24th March, and since the college was a government institution it was expected that the governor of the day, Sir Alfred Moloney, would be in charge of the ceremony.

Precisely at 4:30pm that day, the opening ceremony began. It followed the arrival of the Trinidad Light Horse escorting His Excellency, Sir Alfred, with Lady Moloney, and the reception of both by the College Council. After the forming up of a Guard of Honour and such formalities, attention turned to the men on the stage, or dais. It was interesting that most of the men who had fought for the college to have its own home sat on a dais beside the governor. These men, such as Aucher Warner and the Principal, William Burslem, must have felt very happy to be there instead of being in the Prince’s Building, the former home of the college. And what a magnificent new home!

The man responsible for the building of the college, Walsh Wrightson, was proud of his handwork, and during his speech, declared: “Look at this building and see if it is not worth every penny of its $15,000!” Wrightson presented the key of the college to Governor Sir Alfred, and reminded that on November 11, 1902, many of them gathered there today were present at the stone-laying ceremony; he wanted to tell them that what materialized was a credit to the Public Works Department of which he was head. He said he did not take much credit for it for that belonged to Mr Hahn, who superintended it. Hahn, the architect, was also there.

Governor Sir Alfred was apparently very impressed with the building and congratulated the Director of Public Works Walsh Wrightson. After speaking for a few moments he proceeded to the southern entrance, and having unlocked he door, returned to the dais. He said to the principal, Mr Burslem: I have the honour to present to you a very worthy and able successor of your predecessor the key to this college. And having the fullest confidence in your loyalty, your ability and integrity, I have much pleasure in investing you with it. It is now my privilege to declare the Queen’s Royal College open.

Copyright NALIS, 2010

THE RED HOUSE

The Red House, which came on the scene not as one, but as two significant buildings in the year 1846, is just about Trinidad and Tobago’s most extraordinary building today, considering what one may call its “life and times.”

The Red House first appeared in the administration of Governor Sir Henry MacLeod, who arrived here in 1840. Contrary to previous governors who sought to leave their homes because of increasing government work, MacLeod preferred the work to leave his place of residence. From the time he arrived he began looking around, not for a place to escape but for a place for the work to reside in: Government Offices. He located the empty and somewhat disputed lots, lots that were vacant since the Great Fire of 1808, and resolved the issue to a point where government could step in. Work started and on February 16, 1844, Sir Henry laid the Foundation Stone of both buildings.

The building was on either side of Prince Street, which ran right through Brunswick Square, a square which, since 1917, has been named for Governor Ralph Woodford. After the square Prince Street crossed Abercromby Street and St Vincent Street and continued in its path as Prince Street West.

The building of the Government Offices lying on the northern side of Prince Street was for the registrar and for the chamber of the Legislative Council, and that which was lying to the south was the court house. The water-colour artist Michel Jean Cazabon painted a few views of these government offices.

The Government Offices underwent subtle renovations as the years went by. The first seems to have been in the centre space between the two buildings where Prince Street passed through to go into St Vincent Street. Understandably, government officials decided they did not like the idea of this passage being a thoroughfare to the public. They felt it even threatened security. But again, understandably, they did not want to say "No Entry" at a passage which had stood for several years. So what they did was extend the two buildings close up to the street, putting a canopy above, and maybe it was at the same time they lifted the level of the passageway, putting steps, so that carts and buggies could not pass. Nor could people riding bicycles, nor little boys with their rollers. At any rate it truly gave the impression that this part of Prince Street was not really a street, and that the Government Offices were not two buildings but were one house.

It appears that later on in the century that central section of the Government Offices was enhanced as the main entrance, and it already had its independent entrances: the southern entrance for the Supreme Court and the northern on Knox Street, for the Public Gallery of the Legislative Council.

Also, coming down to the end of the century there were other substantial works which transformed the building, and for style and architecture none could guess what the two buildings had looked like on their completion in 1848. For example a glimpse of the building some years before the fire shows an ornate structure, rather “Coliseum-like” in style, with roman arches all around it but confined to the two floors of the house. The offices themselves had ceased to be the wooden structures they had been at the outset, and were also now covered by a flat roof. A picture on page 78 in The Making of Port-of-Spain shows the Red House just a few years before the fire.

The year 1897 was a significant year in the history of the Red House, if only for the fact it was from that year the term Red House started being used. For that was the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and in decorating the Government Offices for this grand occasion the authorities gave it a coat of patriotic red paint, and from that time it was referred to simply as the Red House.

(The year 1897 was also the year when Governor Sir Hubert Jerningham assumed office as governor of Trinidad and Tobago, and a photograph of the ceremony in the courtyard of the Red House shows that it was already a grand and sophisticated building).

Following the fire of 1903 and the re-building from 1905 to 1907 the architect made a sharp departure although adhering to the classic style. The formal opening of the Council Chamber took place on February 4, 1907, but the new Red House was completed and opened in 1909.

Drawn from various contemporary sources, notably Duplicate Despatches (Harris to Grey), and contemporary newspaper reports.

THE RED HOUSE - BRIEF LIFE AND TIMES

The Red House that was rebuilt after its destruction by fire in 1903 is the Red House we see today. In the period of just over one hundred years since its rebuilding there has been no violent act — save one.

But before talking about it let us look at the building. The new Red House was designed and constructed by the Chief Draughtsman of the Department of Public Works, Daniel Hahn. Its architecture has been loosely described as French Renaissance, and looks very different from that of the former Red House, which, at the time that it had been burned down in 1903, had a flat roof and a façade that was rather grim and austere in appearance.

Perhaps the style could have been called Victorian Colonial?

Anyway, the new Red House having seen the light of day in the full season of political agitation for reform had its first big moment in 1925. In that year for the first time the system of government was going to be a government “of the people, for the people, and by the people.” Preparation for this took place in early 1925, following a one-man Royal Commission in 1922 called the Wood Commission. Major Edward Frederick Lindley Wood had recommended a Legislative Council of seven elected seats (out of a full house of 26) and when general elections took place that year — in special elections on January 17 and 20 for two seats and for the rest on February 7 — it was the first time the Legislative Council was going to be made up of elected members along with the nominated ones.

Maybe it could be said that the second big day for the Red House, thinking of political reform, was that rain-swept day of July 1, 1946, when in a new deal, everyone over 21 years of age could go to the polls. Those elections were known as the Adult Franchise elections. A high point of that occasion was when Governor Bede Clifford nominated Audrey Jeffers to the Legislative Council, the first time a woman had been so honoured.

The third occasion was when the ill-fated Federation was installed, with much pomp and fanfare, on Friday, January 3, 1958. The Federation lasted until October 1961, when, by a Jamaican referendum, the Federation crashed.

The fourth time would have been undoubtedly the day Independence came. The day was August 31, 1962, and as could be imagined there was much more pomp and fanfare at the Red House than ever before. And the Red House itself never looked more special, festooned with all sorts of decorations.

The occasion on which all was not peaceful was on July 27, 1990, when a rebellious group known as the Jamaat al Muslimeen attempted to overthrow the government. Scores of armed men burst into parliament during a debate, carrying out atrocities. The attempted overthrow failed, but it cost several lives and destruction by fire to a lot of the properties of downtown Port-of-Spain.

Copyright NALIS, 2010

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AT ST. JOSEPH

The Roman Catholic Church at St. Joseph is on the site of the first Roman Catholic Church ever built in Trinidad, and that site could well be the first site built upon. For on the occasion, when Domingo de Vera, the maestro de campo of Antonio de Berrío, chose a piece of land on a tributary of the Caroni to establish the first Spanish town in Trinidad, he marked off the sites of the Cabildo, the prison, the Casa Real (Government House) and the church. Since the church was always regarded as the most important building it is likely that they started to build the church first.

That first church appears to have lasted only a few years, and since it was a thatched structure like all the rest, it was constantly re-built, but always on the same site. In 1699, for example, following what has become known as the Arena Massacre, the three priests killed by the natives at Arena (the mission of San Francisco de los Arenales) were brought back to St. Joseph to be buried. That church which existed in 1699 must have been re-built at least once, before the present one of 1815, but the vault was the same because reference was made to the bodies of the priests slain in 1699: “Their bodies were as fresh as if they had just died.” Of course that statement was bound to be in error, but there can be no error concerning the site of the church. So the St. Joseph Roman Catholic church today is built on a site marked out in 1592, the first year the settlement of Trinidad (by outsiders) started.

Copyright NALIS, 2010

THE RUINS OF THE SAN FERNANDO RAILWAY STATION

Had the Trinidad Government Railway not come to Trinidad in 1876, San Fernando might have developed as a very difficult place. One does not know. It is hard to tell, but fairly easy to guess. For the coming of the railway made a great deal of difference to San Fernando although the ruins of its railway station, which is the most northerly structure of its wharf, lies in its quiet neglect.

To those who love history it will be an awful day that attracts the demolition men to it. As it is, its collapse seems to have taken momentum. After the San Fernando line was closed on September 30, 1965, the station seemed to remain intact for quite some time. But not now, maybe it would seem crazy to suggest it be fenced around.

However, to speak of the time the railway was putting in an appearance in San Fernando, one would have to speak of the resumption of work after the railway got to Couva from St Joseph, in 1879. It may well have been that had that line not started at all it would not have been continued, because owing to miscalculation, ineptitude, or unexpected expenses, the money allocated for the construction of the San Fernando line was grossly overspent.

Not all the ills were due to these factors, however. Weatherwise, January in 1882 appeared to be far worse than that extraordinarily wet January of 1880, and cost the railway a great deal of money both by the men being on the job and not able to work, and by extra work created for them by the violent weather. And there appeared to be special construction work that was not planned for, such as the building of steel bridges, the need to run the line almost on the water’s edge —as at Savonetta, a step which called for great engineering technique; and of course when the railway line neared San Fernando, special earth-removing work had to be done. On December 22, 1881, with the line already at Claxton’s Bay, Governor Sir Sanford Freeling was seeking approval from the Colonial Office in London to borrow 50,000 pounds sterling to complete the remaining two miles of railway track to San Fernando.

Maybe much of the work that remained to be done would not be appreciated unless one looked at the terrain to be dealt with. After leaving Couva the course of the line was mainly on the water’s edge, often through mangrove swamps, and this area had to be made firm and steady. Then after Claxton’s Bay there was the need to take the line high over an existing piece of road in order to build a railway station at Pointe-à-Pierre. This station was needed to serve the many sugar estate workers as well as visitors to the Plaisance sulphur springs. So there had to be a sturdy iron bridge crossing the road. Then as it left Pointe-à-Pierre and crossed the Guaracara River, there was the water’s edge again, which again called for special engineering, and before too long on the Marabella coast one came to a bluff of land which cut off San Fernando.

Today if one looks at the contour of the land on the approach to San Fernando wharf one could see that the entire area was dominated by a ridge going on to the sea. To allow for the entry of the railway line into San Fernando the ridge was cut at its western tip and what is more evident is that it was sliced off on its southern side to make room for the building of the railway station. Hence the high bank immediately to the north of King Street. The operation of dealing with the ridge took weeks and proved to be one of the costliest projects along the way. Much of the earth from that “slicing” was used to reclaim an area in front of the railway station and also adjacent to the boathouse and jetty, which was newly put there. When 1882 opened this whole area was transformed and was seeing the last lengths of rail laid down to complete the San Fernando line. At the same time the railway station was being built.

The Director of Public Works, Edward Tanner, was so pleased with the work on that line, and indeed was so confident, that as early as March 30 in that year 1882 he was ready to stage a trial run. That day, at ten o’clock in the morning, a railway van accompanied by a brake van carrying Mr Tanner and three government officials came down the line from Couva to San Fernando. The trial was without incident and Tanner fixed Monday, April 17, for the inauguration. On that day large crowds shouted and cheered as the first passenger train rolled in.

But now, after a century and a quarter have passed all that remains is the “shell” of the little railway station. When the first train rolled in, the little town had just about 5,000 people. Now in its size and grandeur can the City of San Fernando forget?

Copyright NALIS, 2010