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Heritage let down
Seaga laments failure to develop Spanish Town, Port Royal and Seville
BY INGRID BROWN Observer senior reporter [email protected]
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Former Prime Minister Edward Seaga says more ought to have been done to develop Jamaica's three archaeological heritage sites - Spanish Town, Port Royal and Seville - as well as to ensure greater preservation of the country's history.
Highly regarded as a guardian of the island's culture and heritage, Seaga yesterday said that nothing is happening with the three major heritage projects and lamented the lack of appreciation for historic sites and monuments in the country.
"There are stops and starts with Port Royal; Spanish Town has just been ignored; and I can't get anyone to pay any attention to me on the question of Seville although we have eight Spanish hotels in the area," said Seaga in a discussion with reporters and editors at the weekly Observer Monday Exchange held at the newspaper's head office in Kingston.
Seville, he argued, would prove a great attraction for tourists, especially those staying at the Spanish hotels.
Seville in St Ann is the site at which Columbus was marooned for one year. The famous explorer's caravel, the Capitana, is believed to be at Seville, covered by an accumulation of sand since 1509.
In relation to Port Royal, Seaga said he has development plans which have been worked out to the last detail.
Port Royal, in Kingston was the principal trading centre of the Caribbean in the buccaneer era and was once regarded as the richest city in the world, while Spanish Town in St Catherine was the Georgian 19th century capital of Jamaica.
"A lot of these things are just a matter of who is going to say go," Seaga said, explaining that when he was in government he got the money to develop Port Royal.
He said the first allocation was in the 1988 budget with a scheduled pay out date for 1989. However, after the devastation wreaked on the island by Hurricane Gilbert in September 1988, Seaga said he had to return to some of the institutions to advise them that the funds would have to be redirected for recovery efforts and Jamaica would return to them at a later date.
"But nobody ever went back to them," said Seaga who lost the general elections the following year and remained in Opposition until his retirement from active politics in 2005.
The man who is credited with the annual observance of National Heritage Week, blamed a hardening of the society for this lack of appreciation for the preservation of historical monuments.
He said that that appreciation existed in the early days after Independence, as at that time members of parliament were interested in ensuring that infrastructure in communities were repaired and working for the benefit of their constituents.
"Today, I don't say they are not interested in it, but the greater interest is in family and me," said Seaga.
This, he added, has come about because people have not been able to outlive the hardships which started in the 1970s.
Turning to another aspect of cultural preservation, Seaga explained how he rescued Devon House in Kingston from demolition.
He said that one night at dinner he overhead an American talking about plans to bulldoze the mansion and build apartment buildings on the property.
He said the following day he put in motion papers needed to issue a preservation order on Devon House. "So they could buy the property, but they had to preserve it," he explained.
His action stopped the sale and opened up an opportunity for the Government to acquire the property.
Yesterday, he welcomed the fact that Devon House is returning to its former glory after falling into disrepair.
According to Seaga, it is not going to be a replica of what it used to be, but it is on a new level.
The Grogge Shop, he said, is being taken back from private owners and there are a number of ideas as to how it will be operated.
The former prime minister also revealed that in the 1960s he attempted to buy the Nuttall Hospital property in Cross Roads and relocate the institution to Ferry in St Catherine where it would have also served Portmore and Spanish Town.
His idea, he said, was to reorganise Cross Roads and establish the National Gallery there as he had to take the gallery out of Devon House because it was too small plus the fact that the building is a wooden structure.
"You can't put national paintings in a wooden building. That's just stupid," he said.
Seaga laments failure to develop Spanish Town, Port Royal and Seville
BY INGRID BROWN Observer senior reporter [email protected]
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Former Prime Minister Edward Seaga says more ought to have been done to develop Jamaica's three archaeological heritage sites - Spanish Town, Port Royal and Seville - as well as to ensure greater preservation of the country's history.
Highly regarded as a guardian of the island's culture and heritage, Seaga yesterday said that nothing is happening with the three major heritage projects and lamented the lack of appreciation for historic sites and monuments in the country.
"There are stops and starts with Port Royal; Spanish Town has just been ignored; and I can't get anyone to pay any attention to me on the question of Seville although we have eight Spanish hotels in the area," said Seaga in a discussion with reporters and editors at the weekly Observer Monday Exchange held at the newspaper's head office in Kingston.
Seville, he argued, would prove a great attraction for tourists, especially those staying at the Spanish hotels.
Seville in St Ann is the site at which Columbus was marooned for one year. The famous explorer's caravel, the Capitana, is believed to be at Seville, covered by an accumulation of sand since 1509.
In relation to Port Royal, Seaga said he has development plans which have been worked out to the last detail.
Port Royal, in Kingston was the principal trading centre of the Caribbean in the buccaneer era and was once regarded as the richest city in the world, while Spanish Town in St Catherine was the Georgian 19th century capital of Jamaica.
"A lot of these things are just a matter of who is going to say go," Seaga said, explaining that when he was in government he got the money to develop Port Royal.
He said the first allocation was in the 1988 budget with a scheduled pay out date for 1989. However, after the devastation wreaked on the island by Hurricane Gilbert in September 1988, Seaga said he had to return to some of the institutions to advise them that the funds would have to be redirected for recovery efforts and Jamaica would return to them at a later date.
"But nobody ever went back to them," said Seaga who lost the general elections the following year and remained in Opposition until his retirement from active politics in 2005.
The man who is credited with the annual observance of National Heritage Week, blamed a hardening of the society for this lack of appreciation for the preservation of historical monuments.
He said that that appreciation existed in the early days after Independence, as at that time members of parliament were interested in ensuring that infrastructure in communities were repaired and working for the benefit of their constituents.
"Today, I don't say they are not interested in it, but the greater interest is in family and me," said Seaga.
This, he added, has come about because people have not been able to outlive the hardships which started in the 1970s.
Turning to another aspect of cultural preservation, Seaga explained how he rescued Devon House in Kingston from demolition.
He said that one night at dinner he overhead an American talking about plans to bulldoze the mansion and build apartment buildings on the property.
He said the following day he put in motion papers needed to issue a preservation order on Devon House. "So they could buy the property, but they had to preserve it," he explained.
His action stopped the sale and opened up an opportunity for the Government to acquire the property.
Yesterday, he welcomed the fact that Devon House is returning to its former glory after falling into disrepair.
According to Seaga, it is not going to be a replica of what it used to be, but it is on a new level.
The Grogge Shop, he said, is being taken back from private owners and there are a number of ideas as to how it will be operated.
The former prime minister also revealed that in the 1960s he attempted to buy the Nuttall Hospital property in Cross Roads and relocate the institution to Ferry in St Catherine where it would have also served Portmore and Spanish Town.
His idea, he said, was to reorganise Cross Roads and establish the National Gallery there as he had to take the gallery out of Devon House because it was too small plus the fact that the building is a wooden structure.
"You can't put national paintings in a wooden building. That's just stupid," he said.
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