Georgetown was once a rather unique capital in the region, not just because it was a garden city, with trees lining the avenues, grassy parapets and so many houses with ample yard space accommodating tropical flora, but also because of its wooden, colonial-period architecture. There was a time not so many decades ago when one could walk the streets and see building after building, small and large, with their fretwork, Demerara shutters and individually-styled front doors. The carpenters of earlier eras were skilled, with an eye for decorative detail and a certain creativity in their conceptions which ran the gamut from the modest home to the more grandiose structure.
The great period of public building in the city came largely in the second half of the nineteenth century, when a few remarkable architects began to work. One was Sharples, who functioned in the private sphere, but introduced ornamental ironwork to local builders which was also used on public buildings. The best example of this was on the old New Amsterdam hospital, an exceptional edifice which he did not design. That was the handiwork of perhaps the most gifted of the local architects, a Maltese employed by the Public Works Department named Cesar Castellani.
The eye of anyone strolling down what is now Avenue of the Republic in times gone by would have been attracted to City Hall, which was the creation of another talented architect, Fr Ignatius Scoles. It was a credit not only to the man who designed it, but also the carpenters who constructed it and who paid such careful attention to the detail which the plans demanded. According to the historian James Rodway, it was a G. A. Forshaw who managed to secure the site in order to build what was then called a Town Hall. Previously an old broken-down coffee logie where dances were held had once occupied that plot. Forshaw then transferred the property to the Town Council in 1887. The new seat of the Council was opened by Governor Gormanston on July 1, 1889.
City Hall still attracts the eye of the passer-by, but not for quite the same reason that it used to. Nowadays it is the dilapidated state of one of the few survivors of Georgetown’s 19th century public building projects which catches the attention, and visitors to the city must wonder why this beautiful structure was allowed to fall into such a state of disrepair.
All that can be said is that its current condition was the consequence of official neglect over an extended time-frame, leaving citizens to wonder whether it would suffer the same fate as the New Amsterdam Hospital and the Palms, which were allowed to quietly disintegrate unimpeded by the authorities. As it was, the building had already been declared a hazard to public safety, both the Fire Service and the Chief City Engineer categorising it as unsafe for public use.
Earlier this year the residents of the capital were therefore relieved to learn that the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development had issued an invitation for bids for the restoration of City Hall. For the first time it appeared that at the governmental level we had moved beyond empty assurances that something would be done to save the structure, to something tangible being done.
And now, as we reported last week, a contract worth $780 million for the restoration of City Hall has been signed with the Trinidadian firm, Fides Ltd. The restoration was said to be a collaborative effort of the Ministry of Local Government, the City Council and the European Union. Minister Nigel Dharamlall told the audience at the time of the contract signing which took place in the City Hall compound, that an eighteen-month timeline had been established for the completion of the project, and that it was unlikely that the due date of March 2023 would be extended.
He gave credit for the development to President Irfaan Ali, and said that this was one of the first things the head of state had sought to have done upon entering office. The Minister was quoted as saying, “… one of the first things [President Ali] did at his first cabinet meeting was to establish a ministerial task force to oversee development works on behalf of the government within the city of George-town.” It can only be remarked that unlike his PPP/C predecessors who left the building to decay for twenty-three years, and his coalition predecessor, who although expressing public disquiet about the state of City Hall did nothing concrete about it, the President has demonstrated some commendable concern for the material heritage of this country.
There is inevitably some interest in the kind of experience Fides Ltd has where historical restoration work is concerned. What Georgetowners are not looking for is a repeat of what happened in the case of the Sacred Heart Church on Main Street. This very attractive building was erected for the Portuguese community, and was opened in 1861. While the main structure was designed by Fr Schembri, what gave it its aesthetic quality was the façade added by Castellani in 1872. It was burnt down on Christmas Day a few years ago as a consequence of carelessness.
While it was eventually decided to rebuild a smaller version of the original, what finally emerged was a travesty of the prototype, lacking all the detail and grace which were the hallmarks of Castellani’s work. A stranger would nowadays not accord it a second glance, as indeed locals don’t in any case.
Fortunately, Fides does seem to have experience in historical restoration, having worked on the first Catholic church in Port of Spain, which was constructed in 1781. The company has stated that its engineers have a wealth of experience in the industry, and ensure the highest level of quality and accuracy. It went on to say that it was retained by the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago to engage in restoration works on Whitehall, Mille Fleurs and Stollmeyer’s Castle which form part of the Magnificent Seven historical landmarks in the country.
If it is indeed the case that this firm can restore all the details of Scoles’s creation and reflect the quality of handiwork of its builders, then that would give the capital once again a small flavour of what it once had been. It would have been a tragedy if after nearly all the characteristic Guyanese heritage buildings, both large and small have disappeared, the one great surviving construction of this city had been allowed to moulder into dust.