TWO COTTAGES IN THE BOTANIC GARDENS

Two cottages in the Botanic Gardens, Woodford’s “St. Ann’s” and “Gordon’s Cottage,” ended not only the era of Government Houses in the Botanic Gardens, but also ended the era of Government Houses as residences.

When Woodford came down from Belmont Hill in 1821 he lived in the Hollandais estate house which was being renovated, and this was what became the stylish cottage “St. Ann’s.” It was Woodford’s home as well as his office, and apparently, much more of a place for entertainment than a place for catching up with work. Many newspaper reports of the time spoke of dancing far into the night.

After Woodford died (at sea) in 1828 the liveliness of St. Ann’s cottage lay mute. Lewis Grant, who succeeded him, was hardly the sort of man to “cut a rug.” Lewis Grant came here for one purpose: he brought the authorization of a very important constitutional change: a legislative council. He was charged with setting it up, to see that it ran well, and maybe to stay until its functions were understood by all. Lewis Grant spent two years here.

Shortly after Grant assumed office in 1831, he started the building of the Treasury and Rum Bond, taking up a sizeable area between the southern ends of St Vincent Street and Edward Street. He seemed to have reserved a large part of the upper floor for government offices as well as a part for his residence. When he left in 1833 he had changed the order of things. His work in setting up a legislative council was to prepare the way for getting rid of slavery.

But Grant may have been a bright man at politics and at constitutional affairs, as well as at the science of government, but to handle a matter such as the transition from slavery to freedom called for a completely different sort of talent. So the British government sent George Fitzgerald Hill. Governor Hill, already in his 70s when he came here in 1833, tried “all the tricks in the book” to hold back the dawn and make the slaves believe that emancipation meant the abolition of slavery. But the slaves did not have to be “bright” to know what it was to be free. Suffice it to say that Hill’s task was so fatiguing that he became the first British governor to die here. He died in 1839 after the storms of emancipation and the abolition had passed. He was buried in the Botanic Gardens.

It was the governor who succeeded Hill that made the first clean break with government offices and the governor’s house. This was Sir Henry MacLeod. This governor went first to live in the Treasury building but he did not seem to like living so close to his office and work. So he watched the money that came into the Treasury. It was also a fine place to watch trade, mainly as affected the rum bond, for dozens of flat and droghers came in from the St Vincent Wharf, which lay just outside the Treasury and Rum Bond.

Governor MacLeod had one eye on the Treasury and the other eye on a piece of land not far away. And when the tide of the Treasury’s coffers was on the rise he acquired the piece of land, and on February 16, 1844 he laid the Foundation Stone for new government offices.

They were two separate buildings with Prince Street passing between them, and not at all like what they look like today. One of the buildings was for the legislative council and one was for the courts of law. But they both dealt with government work.

MacLeod left in 1845 and it was Lord Harris, the next governor, who saw the government offices completed. And Government Offices they were called, for the year 1897 was far off, and these two buildings had to wait until then to get a coat of patriotic red paint for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and to be then called the “Red House.”

Copyright NALIS, 2010

THE TWO CROWNS AT COBLENTZ GARDENS, ST. ANN’S

The two crowns, one on each pillar at the entrance to Coblentz Gardens, St Ann’s, remind of four things: they remind of a time when Princes Town was still called “Mission,” when León Agostini, cocoa proprietor, lived in Coblentz House, which was one of the biggest mansions in Trinidad at the time; when two princes, Queen Victoria’s grandsons, came to Trinidad; and when the Trinidad Government Railway was busily forging a route to San Fernando.

First about León Agostini and Coblentz House. León, who as a young man had studied at the University of Coblentz in Germany, fell so much in love with Coblentz that very few things in his possession did not come under the influence of that name. When he came back from Germany he named the Agostini lands at St Ann’s, Coblentz, and proceeded to build one of the biggest houses in Trinidad, which he called Coblentz House. The gossip in the street said that the house had one more window than the governor’s residence and that León was forced to close a window because that sort of thing could not have been allowed.

But he built as big a house some years later. When in 1899 the Government Farm was removed from St Clair to Valsayn the government decided to auction lots on the Maraval Road strip (between St Clair Avenue and Serpentine Road). These plots were for the building of grand and luxurious residences, and were advertised as such in 1902. At the auction León Agostini obtained one of the plots, he took a mortgage from financier William Gordon Gordon, and in 1904 he built a mansion upon it, coloured the mansion with a rose-pink wash and named it “Rosenveg,” German for “The Way of the Roses.” But León Agostini died suddenly in 1906, and his wife could not continue the payments. So what did William Gordon Gordon do? He foreclosed on her and she had to go. Gordon Gordon then sold Rosenweg to William Henderson. William Henderson gave it a coat of white paint and called it White Hall.

But we go back to Léon Agostini’s time in Coblentz House to speak of the two crowns. These are associated with what is perhaps the best story told about this mansion and the story has to do with an event of January 1880. A cruise ship, the “Bacchante,” called at Trinidad from Australia on January 8, and aboard were two grandsons of Queen Victoria, midshipmen George, just 15 years old, and his brother, Albert Victor, age 16. From the time the “Bacchante” arrived in Port-of-Spain harbour and news spread, people broke out in patriotic fervour. Prince George, later to become King George V, was hardly to see a warmer reception in the days of his own reign.

The huge cheering crowd saw the princes taken to Government House by Governor Sir Henry Irving as his guests, and a short while afterwards they were escorted to the nearby Coblentz House, which was ablaze with colour. A huge crowd had gathered outside the entrance and the reporter, briefly noticing this, said: “The carriage drive leading to Mr Agostini’s dwelling, and the frontage, was most brilliantly illumined by upwards of 2,000 coloured lights, and the grounds were kept constantly ablaze with blue, green and red Bengal lights.”

What was the event? León Agostini was giving a grand ball to mark the visit of the princes.

The boys were reported to have danced the night away — especially the younger one, who was deemed “flirtatious.” The ball itself was rather impressively handled and the reporter said: “This ball has had no equal in the efforts of any private individual.”

The young princes spent the Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Port-of-Spain, and on the Monday the governor took them on a journey to south Trinidad. A report on Saturday January 17, said in part: “On Monday the good people of Couva were treated to a royal visit. About eleven o’clock in the forenoon a train arrived at the railway terminus there, bearing His Excellency Sir Henry Turner Irving, Lord Charles Scott, and a number of midshipmen among whom were their royal highnesses Prince Albert Victor and Prince George, sons of the Prince of Wales.”

So we know that at that point of January 1880 the railway line ended at Couva. Shortly after the Trinidad Government Railway was introduced into Trinidad in 1876 it was decided to take a branch of the line to San Fernando, and by January 1880 it had got as far as Couva. It reached San Fernando on Monday, April 17, 1882.

But to return to the princes at Couva. At this point there was another demonstration of public welcome, while the people of San Fernando were waiting with such impatience and with the town so festooned with flags and banners they knew they could not possibly be outdone. From Couva the boys were taken back to Port-of-Spain and on Tuesday, January 20, the Bacchante steamed from Port-of-Spain harbour straight down the Gulf of Paria to La Brea so that the princes could see the “wonder” pitch lake of Trinidad. And having looked at it, that very evening was their turn, not to see San Fernando, for that did not seem the important part, but for San Fernando to see them.

Copyright NALIS, 2010

THE SAN FERNANDO COURT HOUSE

Ever since San Fernando was given the status of a Borough in 1853 the call for a Court House — a call which had been heard for years — intensified into a cry. For although the population was small, it was a bustling place, with business enterprises everywhere, and many important matters to deal with, including judicial. Yet, anything to do with court matters had to be settled in Port-of-Spain, for there was no court house in this borough. There were great fields of sugar cane all around San Fernando, and estates with sugar mills grinding sugar which was the mainstay of the Trinidad economy, but however busy the sugar planter was, on a court day, or maybe the day before, he had to leave whatever he was doing and catch the gulf steamer to take him to the assizes in Port-of-Spain. And sometimes, after the assizes he might have to spend another night in Port-of-Spain, for should he miss the gulf steamer there was no other way to make the trip.

As the 1860s came in, the lack of a court house in San Fernando grew to be one of the biggest problems. And nobody outside of San Fernando seemed to care, at least none of the government officials, but suddenly, on October 16, 1869, the San Fernando Gazette reported: “The inhabitants of San Fernando have been startled by the astonishing news that a session of the criminal courts is actually to be held in this town in December next. It is only forty years since it was first promised! Perhaps we may now get a water supply and some of the other boons that have been contemplated. Most wonderful is the course of progress in Trinidad.”

Despite the ironic slant of the article, San Fernandians were all happy and the Borough Councilors went so far as to offer the Town Hall for that first session. But it appeared that things got even better when the first session was held because the Chief Justice and his judges saw how inadequate the Town Hall was for these judicial matters. There was also controversy as to sleeping quarters. And yet there was no turning back. Criminal sessions, once given, could not be withdrawn from San Fernando. The governor, who was Sir Arthur Gordon, decided that a court house was to be built.

Just at that time Gordon got news from London that his term of office was up. He pushed through matters so that the court house would be started. On Thursday, June 2, 1870, he traveled south to say goodbye to San Fernando and he got the warmest ovation of gratitude and love that a visiting governor received up to that time. The gathering was at the corner of the southern lane of Harris Promenade, near the spot where the Court House was going up, and where masons and carpenters were frantically working.

Gordon told the gathering: “When I first came to this town the Borough Council and Corporation of San Fernando asked for two things: a supply of water for San Fernando, and the building of a court house in which to administer justice. Yesterday an ordinance for supplying the town with water was passed, and today I have come down to the lay the foundation stone of this building for the administration of justice…”

The court house was completed (or nearly so) and was inaugurated, with much pomp and fanfare, on Tuesday, March 10, 1874. The ceremony was one of the most colourful of the times. As was hinted, the building was not completely finished, but the criminal sessions were due and it was decided to use it.

On this inauguration day, a report in the San Fernando Gazette described the new court house in this way: "The buildings are of gothic style and architecture and are built in a most massive manner of stone and brick. They comprise the assize court, to be used quarterly by her majesty’s judges; a court for the use of the Stipendiary Justices of the peace, the judges private room, the juror’s room, and the private room of the Stipendiary Justice...The situation of the court house is most charming on Harris Promenade, the buildings standing some distance back from the fine avenue of trees through which the road passes…"

The criminal sessions began directly after the ceremony. The first name called was “Matthew Frederick,” and Matthew had the dubious distinction of being the first person to be sent to jail from the San Fernando court house. He was found guilty of assault and sentenced to two years hard.

Copyright NALIS, 2010

THE SAN FERNANDO COURT HOUSE

Ever since San Fernando was given the status of a Borough in 1853 the call for a Court House — a call which had been heard for years — intensified into a cry. For although the population was small, it was a bustling place, with business enterprises everywhere, and many important matters to deal with, including judicial. Yet, anything to do with court matters had to be settled in Port-of-Spain, for there was no court house in this borough. There were great fields of sugar cane all around San Fernando, and estates with sugar mills grinding sugar which was the mainstay of the Trinidad economy, but however busy the sugar planter was, on a court day, or maybe the day before, he had to leave whatever he was doing and catch the gulf steamer to take him to the assizes in Port-of-Spain. And sometimes, after the assizes he might have to spend another night in Port-of-Spain, for should he miss the gulf steamer there was no other way to make the trip.

As the 1860s came in, the lack of a court house in San Fernando grew to be one of the biggest problems. And nobody outside of San Fernando seemed to care, at least none of the government officials, but suddenly, on October 16, 1869, the San Fernando Gazette reported: “The inhabitants of San Fernando have been startled by the astonishing news that a session of the criminal courts is actually to be held in this town in December next. It is only forty years since it was first promised! Perhaps we may now get a water supply and some of the other boons that have been contemplated. Most wonderful is the course of progress in Trinidad.”

Despite the ironic slant of the article, San Fernandians were all happy and the Borough Councilors went so far as to offer the Town Hall for that first session. But it appeared that things got even better when the first session was held because the Chief Justice and his judges saw how inadequate the Town Hall was for these judicial matters. There was also controversy as to sleeping quarters. And yet there was no turning back. Criminal sessions, once given, could not be withdrawn from San Fernando. The governor, who was Sir Arthur Gordon, decided that a court house was to be built.

Just at that time Gordon got news from London that his term of office was up. He pushed through matters so that the court house would be started. On Thursday, June 2, 1870, he traveled south to say goodbye to San Fernando and he got the warmest ovation of gratitude and love that a visiting governor received up to that time. The gathering was at the corner of the southern lane of Harris Promenade, near the spot where the Court House was going up, and where masons and carpenters were frantically working.

Gordon told the gathering: “When I first came to this town the Borough Council and Corporation of San Fernando asked for two things: a supply of water for San Fernando, and the building of a court house in which to administer justice. Yesterday an ordinance for supplying the town with water was passed, and today I have come down to the lay the foundation stone of this building for the administration of justice…”

The court house was completed (or nearly so) and was inaugurated, with much pomp and fanfare, on Tuesday, March 10, 1874. The ceremony was one of the most colourful of the times. As was hinted, the building was not completely finished, but the criminal sessions were due and it was decided to use it.

On this inauguration day, a report in the San Fernando Gazette described the new court house in this way: "The buildings are of gothic style and architecture and are built in a most massive manner of stone and brick. They comprise the assize court, to be used quarterly by her majesty’s judges; a court for the use of the Stipendiary Justices of the peace, the judges private room, the juror’s room, and the private room of the Stipendiary Justice...The situation of the court house is most charming on Harris Promenade, the buildings standing some distance back from the fine avenue of trees through which the road passes…"

The criminal sessions began directly after the ceremony. The first name called was “Matthew Frederick,” and Matthew had the dubious distinction of being the first person to be sent to jail from the San Fernando court house. He was found guilty of assault and sentenced to two years hard.

Copyright NALIS, 2010

ST. BERNARD HOUSE

One of the oldest structures in the whole County of Mayaro is this house on the old St. Bernard Estate in Mayaro, a once-thriving estate between the estuary of the River Ortoire, the Manzanilla-Mayaro Road and the St. Joseph Estate of the Ganteaumes, and later the de Meillacs.

The location of St. Bernard Estate is shown on a map of 1797 as an original Spanish grant, made to the Frenchman Guise. Whether it was called St. Bernard from its inception is not clear but is likely. It was later owned by a German-born family, the Urichs.

It is known that Friedrich and Wilhelm Urich were brought from Germany by their uncles Gerold mainly to work in business established by these uncles. It is on record that in the first group of indentured workers brought by the Fatel Rozack in May 1845 a few of these indentured workers were allocated to St Bernard Estate, and what was more, due to government’s stipulation, at one point St Bernard’s House was an immigrant hospital.

St. Bernard House is secluded. It lies well into the estate about a quarter of a mile from the Manzanilla-Mayaro Road and a rather shorter distance from the sea. However there was far from being a Manzanilla-Mayaro Road when this house was built, for this road was constructed only in 1929. St Bernard House was always flanked by forests in its early days and for many years the only roadway was the sea. The setting is extremely beautiful with a sweep of green lawn dotted with ornamental trees, and facing the east, there is a cassia-lined walk to the water's edge. The round-island steamers came and took the estate's produce of cocoa and coconuts to Port of Spain. And, of course, this would have been an opportunity for estate personnel to travel to and from the capital.

For those on horseback or for pedestrians, the way to the village of Mayaro was southerly, about three miles along the sands at low-tide. At low tide, when there was a broad beach, the Urich’s buggy would roll out of the walkway (or driveway) and no doubt head for neighbour Ganteaume’s premises, St. Joseph Estate, less than half-a-mile to the south.

(In that great-house, St. Bernard, there is a picture of Paul Urich in his buggy on the beach outside St. Bernard Estate, and the photograph must have been taken maybe around 1905.)

A broad beach could have also taken the Urich family to the village of Mayaro, the centre of which was Radix, about six miles away.

But back to St. Bernard Estate, which seems to have been small and private, more like a seaside resort. The property remained in the hands of the Urichs until 1951, in which year, the firm of J.N. Harriman, for long associated with the Urichs, took over responsibility for it.

Small renovations have been done to St. Bernard House but there certainly have not been many changes. Structurally, the attractive estate house seems as solid and as in fine a repair as it must have been a century ago.

Copyright NALIS, 2010

ST. JAMES BARRACKS

St. James Barracks, named for the Court of St. James, the Colonial Office in London, and erected in 1824, was built to house British troops in anticipation of the abolition of slavery.

At the time it was built its location was considered to be far out of Port-of-Spain and in the region of high woods — which would have pleased the authorities, for the idea was not only to make it inaccessible but to hide it. In one of the photographs of St. James Barracks in the early days one could see the host of young samaan trees which obscures a view of the barracks. Most of them are still there. Which goes to show what the policy was: to guard against insurrection by concealing the fact that British troops were going to be on the spot when the day of emancipation came.

Of course nobody knew when emancipation or freedom was going to come. We know now, after the fact, that it was to be 14 years after the barracks were built. So indeed nobody was in a hurry and the planters were given as much time as possible.

It is not clear whether the slaves knew of the existence of St. James Barracks before emancipation came. Indeed, the fact that emancipation did not come soon after nearly made its existence common knowledge. It created a situation that nearly led to a riot, and was the most dramatic involvement of British troops in slavery affairs in Port-of-Spain.

There was another tense moment with the militia on the street when the abolition of slavery — the true emancipation — came in 1838. Following the abolition, although the British retained many troops here, it was on a tentative basis, apparently intending to keep a garrison here until there was absolutely no more need.

However in 1890, by which time the British army may have forgotten it had troops in Trinidad, the Secretary of State for the Colonies reviewed his position and recalled the troops. They left the barracks as a place where policemen could be trained.

Long before this, and even around the time of slavery itself, people began referring to an estate nearby as St. James, meaning an estate near to the soldier’s barracks. This place was ceasing to be an estate and becoming a village. So the soldier’s barracks continued to be called “St. James Barracks,” and the village on Peru Estate was St. James.

By 1890 Peru Village was all but confirmed as St. James — even the authorities called it St. James — and St. James Barracks was still known as St. James Barracks, the home of the soldiers. However the constabulary was fast taking it over as the Police Training School, but it continued to be, and rightly so, St. James Barracks. For did not this house stand at one of the greatest junctures of Trinidad history?

Copyright NALIS, 2010