Over the time of its lengthy existence, Main Street in Georgetown has served as the location of many iconic edifices, which have had, and in some instances still have, significant bearing on the course of our history. As one strolls along the avenue (which was a canal until 1923) from the southern end, savouring the shade of the decades-old Samaan trees bestride the footpath, the rolodex of one’s memory whirls feverishly, searching for images of buildings and names of businesses from the past.
The shortlist of enduring landmarks offer teasing clues. The Bank of Guyana, an engineering marvel at the time of its construction in the 1960s by the British company Taylor Woodrow, imposingly ensconced on its floating foundation across from the War Memorial (commonly referred to as the Cenotaph) stands sentinel. The National Public Library (previously known as the Public Free Library), which was built with a grant from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, opened its doors in 1909 and has been a fountain of knowledge and entertainment for thousands of the (now fast dwindling) reading populace over the past century and counting.
Hotel Tower, with its entrance steps still in the same location since 1910 (previously sited where the Guyana Post Office Corporation is now, in 1866), retains its revered place. Crossing over Quamina Street (formerly Murray Street until August 1985), the former US Embassy building on the western side, devoid of occupancy since 1991, dilapidated and shuttered appears to be on its last legs. Palm Court, established in the 1940s, still retains its magnetic pull for the party crowd, more specifically the ‘night owl’ species.
In the third block, State House, basking in its architectural splendour with its well manicured lawns and carefully trimmed foliage, still evokes sharp memories of the colonial era, as does its southern neighbour, the Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology, with its jalousies and Demerara shutters. Opposite State House sits the despondent facade of the oft despised Guyana Power and Light (formerly Guyana Electricity Corporation) Head Office. Among the stalwarts still standing north of New Market Street are the British High Commission and the Ministry of Finance, which moved there in the early 1970s from the Parliament Buildings, replacing the Transport and Harbours Department as the tenants at the corner of Main and Urquhart streets.
Fire, the feared weapon of destruction, was responsible for the removal of three iconic wooden landmarks: the Park Hotel in May 2000, the Sacred Heart Church on Christmas Day, 2004, and, on 11th January, 2011, the R G Humphrey Building, built in 1937 at the northwest corner of Main and Holmes streets, which had previously housed the long gone R G Humphrey Cigarette and Tobacco Manufacturing Company.
Recent occupants on the block (less than 40 years) include Courts, which occupies the former T Geddes Grant (Guyana) Ltd building and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport at the old offices of the Demerara Bauxite Company, later Bauxite Industry Development Company. There are also Arapaima Restaurant, the rebuilt Sacred Heart Church, New Thriving Restaurant (previously located on the ground floor of the Park Hotel), the Customs and Excise offices, and the Prime Minister’s Residence, which had formerly served as the British High Commissioner’s residence.
Prominent Main Street businesses which no longer dot the dual carriageway include D M Fernandes Ltd, Barclays Bank Ltd, Trent House with the popular Punch Bowl Bar at the rear, Ferraz (a cake shop famous for its peanut punch), Enzo’s Beauty Parlour, NCR Corporation, and the local ‘campuses’ of Cambridge and Oxford, whose teachings were alleged to be of ‘ill repute’. Long departed from the ground floor of Hotel Tower are the airline offices of BOAC and Air France, along with the gaggle of their flight rivals, Sprostons Travel Service, Frandec Travel Service, Joe Chin Travel Service and Guyana Airways Corporation which were clustered up further down the runway at the junction of Main and Holmes streets.
Today, there are very few residences on Main Street, as compared to the epoch of the 1960s and the early 1970s when prominent business families occupied sprawling colonial homes, including the Jaikarans, Psailas, Rahamans and the Sankars.
In last Sunday’s edition of this newspaper a large photograph, with the strap line, “Palm Court acquires neighbouring property” covered the lower third of page 13. The caption read, “The property which once housed an annex of the United States Embassy at the corner of Main and Bentinck streets has been sold to the owners of Palm Court and will be added to the development of that entity. The building which had been unoccupied for decades has begun to deteriorate. At one time, US Visa applications were processed there. The building is currently being dismantled.” In the photograph, there are three cars parked on Main Street, facing north, in front of a solid white concrete wall which appears to be at least eight feet tall. The top of the front walls of the building extend about six feet above the wall.
While several important decisions determining the future of British Guiana were discussed at State House when it was occupied by the Governor General(s), it can be argued that the subject of the photograph had just as much an impact, or even more (as some might propose) on the first two and a half decades of the history of this young nation.
The structure was built sometime in the 1950s or the early 1960s, and it was an anomaly. In stark contrast to its entrenched neighbour across Bentinck Street, the sprawling Park Hotel, with its spacious open air ballroom on the first floor, intricate fretwork and Demerara shutters, and the rest of the colonial styled mansions sprinkled along the thoroughfare, this (then) modern interloper was a dwarf amongst giants on stilts. It sat flat on the ground, and was made of concrete. Its prominent feature was its facade which faced the traffic proceeding west along Middle Street. The southern part of the tall front wall was solid concrete, while the northern part (just past the doorway) was an L-shaped wall of slipform stonemasonry, a rare construction feature at that period of time. (The Rendezvous Restaurant on Robb Street had a similar wall, but of a much smaller surface area). The windows were encased in metal frames. The initial occupant of the new building was the local Head Office of Esso, the American gas and oil company, whose distinctive logo in red letters encased in a blue oval, was displayed in large signage on the building. In January 1973, the oil conglomerate shifted office to the north-east corner of Carmichael and Murray streets. The US Embassy then moved its Visa Consulate operations to the building.
Until 1991, when the embassy relocated all its offices to the newly constructed edifice at the corner of Young and Duke streets, just across from the Canadian High Commission (which had vacated its tenancy at the Bank of Guyana in the early 1980s), that building at the corner of Main and Bentinck streets had been the focus of the thoughts, dreams and wishes of thousands of Guyanese. As the economic conditions worsened from the mid-1970s through the 1980s, Guyanese flocked there in droves to apply for US visas. Long lines wound their way along Bentinck Street before the break of dawn. The US visa was gold (visitor visas for Canada were not introduced until September 1984) and a highly sought after commodity. Family sponsorship was a long drawn out process, visitor, student and the rare work permit visas were prized possessions.
In addition to providing an escape hatch from the economic crisis, the continuous security modifications and upgrades to the building kept the public abreast of the ever increasing awareness and threat of terrorism. The installation of high fences, sharpened barb wires, state-of-the-art security cameras, significant increases in the number of security personnel, body searches and bag scans upon entering were all par for the course. Later, when the visa section was shifted to the new fort-like structure, the solid outer wall was built around the perimeter of the property which was thought to have been used as a storage bond.
It will soon be no more; the hands of time are erasing yet another iconic landmark on Main Street.
