Historic house destroyed in car crash
The historic Arthur Bodden house destroyed by a car crash 23 Nov 2015
(CNS): One of the islands’ few remaining historical buildings has been destroyed in a car accident. Police have confirmed that a car crashed into the wooden Arthur Bodden house on North Church Street in the early hours of Saturday morning. An RCIPS spokesperson said that the driver of a Honda Civic lost control of the car at about 3:20am on 21 November as he was heading south along the waterfront road.
No other vehicle was involved in the smash that saw the car end up inside the house and both the driver and his passenger hospitalized for non-life threatening injuries. The police said they are now investigating the cause of the accident.
The little house is estimated to be around 90 years old as it was constructed some time after Mr Arthur’s store across the street, which was established in 1897 and is one of the oldest surviving intact buildings in Cayman.
Although only a small wooden property, the Arthur Bodden house not only survived the onslaught of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 but has also been through numerous other vehicle collisions, including on one occasion when it was hit by a church bus.
This time the entire front of the building has been destroyed as the car was understood to have ended up in the middle of the property.
Category: Police
Car hits shack.
In a real country this article would be all about a bad driver and how he will take responsibility for his actions.
The patties were next door lol
He missed the liquor store by an even longer shot.
It looks like a shed or a garage. How old is it actually? Is that a historic recliner I see in the room?
“Historic”or just “old”?
“historic” or “old”…..stupid comment because usually if something is historic it is indeed “old”!
You must be the new village idiot! Welcome!
Not in the English spoken in places with history that goes back more than a few centuries.
If she was alive, my dear Grandma would be old, but it certainly does not make her historic..
Pure disrespect. Straight and simple.
Can you disrespect a shed?
Do elaborate. I am keen to learn the historic significance of an old shack.
Thank you for offering to welcome me to your idiot village. I’ll pass on the offer thanks.
YOU are the ignorant fool. There is distinction between “historic” and “old”. “Historic” refers to something that is famous or important in history. That which is historic is generally old but that which is old is not necessarily historic. That is the point the writer was making and which you missed.
Who is really the stupid one? The word ‘historic’ means famous or important in history whereas the word historical means ‘in the past’. Something can be old and not historic.
To all the pathetic ignoramuses here, it is both the distinct Caymanian style craftmanship of a bygone era as well as the fact that Mr. Arthur’s property, both the house and the store, have survived 100 years of onslaughts from both man and nature that indeed make it historic. How I wish that the people that come here and refuse to appreciate Cayman for what it is would just very simply pack their bags and go back to the blessed paradises they had to run from.
In that case you have no meaningful history if Mr Bob’s Shed is of importance.
Mr Bob’s shed? You must have had some of whatever that driver was drinking… note I said, quote,”both the house and the store”.Mr Arthur’s house and store that is, not Mr. Bob’s shed.
Are you sure it is not Mr Bob’s Shed? Mr Bob kept lots of stuff in his historic shed.
I’m sure Mr Bob had more in his shed than you will ever have in your woefully empty head.
So you know of the tales of Mr Bob’s Shed and wonders that were contained therein! Mr Bob would never have descended to ad hominem attacks and neither should you.
Perhaps the statue of Jim Bodden, destroyer of historic buildings, can be melted down and the funds used to help the repair.
The lord sayeth yee shall not park your car in another man’s house.
To clarify, the Lord sayeth that thou shalt not park thy car in the rear of another mans house. In front is fine.
Oohh, I don’t know F.Packer, I am quite partial to rear parking
You need to be careful as it can be a tight squeeze.
But certainly worth the effort.
Eeeww!
Aaargh!
Cantona?
CNS thank u for covering this story. Just thought it might be good to clarify this is the print shop, not the home. The three structures which include Mr Arthur’s shop, print shop and home tell any important part of our Caymanian story together, as well as the story of that specific family. I hope the judge hands done a strong sentence for this careless and dangerous driver. I also hope a test was done to see if the driver was drinking.
And I hope he has to pick up the cost involved with rebuilding or clean-up efforts!
Can you please let us know who built it? It has survived the 32′ Hurricane, Gilbert, Ivan and numerous cars passing through it over the years.
Whoever built it needs to construct my home too.
sorry to say historical docent mean valuable, this hazard needs to be removed now. many crashes have occurred there, and for the sake of what exactly? how is this building even allowed to be on the road like that?
Yes, it is the hundred year old structures fault that people can not stay on the road when they are driving…. I guess all the roads in Cayman should be straight so that the idiots that cant drive have a better chance? Should we remove all the bushes, sidewalks, ditches, iron shore, and road barriers also?
This house is not in the road, lunatic. Both you and the driver of this vehicle should be forced to drive a flourescent pink vehicle so the rest of the world can be sure to get out of the way when they see you coming.
23/11/2015 at 8:53 pm Either you are another one who’s NOT from the Cayman Islands and just quick to dismiss the Historical Value of our fore fathers or you are just one of our own locals own are NOT patriotic to our own, which includes our historical structures and sometimes our historical people.
We should talk to this (Mr. Arthur’s) family to know how much the tourist, especially from the cruise ships value those same ” Mr. Arthur Bodden’s buildings”, as they stop by and express their appreciation to some of the few remaining Cayman’s historical buildings.
I would encourage the National Trust to get involved with the preservation of the few remaining historical buildings and perhaps place a wall/fence or protection of some sort around the perimeter of the buildings to protect them from the careless/reckless road users.
We can build all of the cruise ship docks to cater to cruise ships but at the rate we are disrespecting our fore fathers’ hard work we will see why the tourist the CRUISE SHIPS Full of passengers are sailing across our waters without stopping in.
In want to NOW utilize this media house to invite more of our locals and residence who have the BEST intentions for us to stop and support the LiL struggling HISTORICAL and one of a KIND store that WILL help encourage this FAMILY to KEEP its doors open to HELP PRESERVE OUR LIL REMAINING LOCAL HISTORY.
I would suggest to the BIG STORE OWNERS IN Cayman, especially the ONES that have a direct interest in George Town for the TOURIST to invest in the LIL remaining HISTORY that we HAVE as this will contribute to our TOURIST wanting to return or to send others to us by way of word of mouth.
Do we RECALL the BEAUTIFUL and HISTORICAL DR. Roy McTaggart’s house on the South Church Street (Water front) George Town. As HIND Site has shown so many of us LOCALS and Visitors alike that said HOUSE should have remained in front and the BIG MORDERN DAY MALL built either to the side of the house or at the rear of the house.
Today we need to CALL on the Government and the LEADERS at The Planning Department to place a BANNED on the HISTORICAL BUILDINGS being DEMOLISHED to BUILD the new Buildings.
THERE IS A LIL Church in NORTH SIDE, THAT IS ABOUT TO BE DEMOLISHED TO BUILD A MODERN DAY HUGE CHURCH. THE NEW and HUGE CHURCH IS A GREAT IDEAH BUT LET US PRESERVE OUR LOCAL HISTORY WHILE BECOMING MODERN. HOW DISTRESPECT TO OUR FOREFATHERS we disregard their HARD WORK and HISTORY? THE OLDER FOLKS from this CHURCH IS NOT in agreement of the said little church being DEMOLISHED.
NATIONAL TRUST PLEASE INTERVAIN ONCE AGAIN to preserve our LIL remaining HISTORY, as there is NO GREAT NEED TO remove that LIL church in North Side in order to build a new one. We BETTER be Careful the older deceased Christian people of our district (North Side) and throughout these islands DON’T Roll over in their GRAVES if that LIL church is pushed down.
To Mr. Arthur’s Family, even though you may at times be struggling financially to KEEP yours AND ours (the LoCal PuBLic) shop OPEN PLEASE continue and THANKS AGAIN for making the continued personal sacrifices to do so. As we locals KNOW you could have beeeeeeeen another one that have chosen to have SOLD OUT LoNG ago.
We REGULAR LOCAL SuPPORTerS of your (Mr. Arthur’s) store will continue to stop in and buy from you and cherish the history when stopping and having a chat for a while, to rest a LIL as we escape for a short while from the RAT RACE on the outside.
Thanks again CNS for covering one of the FEW remaining historical buildings.
LOCAls and others RESIDENCE that have our BEST interest at HEART PLEASE LETS WAKE UP AND PRESERVE WHAT’S OURS.
You need to stop shouting. It detracts from what you are trying to express.
No! Such capitalization helps identify the writer as an angry idiot so you can skip the post without wasting time reading it.
I dont know why but half way through reading your post I felt suicidal…
Don’t scroll down then, it gets worse.
veRy IrRitAtinG
24/11/2015 at 2:02 pm Is it very irritating or are you just plain and simple anti-Local and anti-heritage or anti-history of our BEAUTIFUL CAYMAN ISLANDS ?
Whenever we have LOVE in our hearts it HELPS us to see beyond the (very irritating moments, even in our personal lives (relationships).
We sometimes wonder why certain people come to our shores to be irritated by the GOOD that us LOCALS are trying to accomplish?
Do you have any good intentions for us or are you one of them who are here on these islands to stay around long enough, until we are gone so far down the drain and then you will be one of many, to quickly get on a plane or boat and return to your home country (or start destroying somewhere else you travel to) laughing at how we are where you wanted to see us?
Of course I do NOT refer to any specific nationality because we have some good people amongst us who are not from here but have the BEST intentions for us (our Best interest at heart) and others who (out of envy) can’t wait to see us and our beautiful islands fall.
May our GREAT GOD continue to bless and protect us and let us survive above it all.
We LOVE All especially those whom have us locals best interest at HEART.
Can’t read this in this format, so you’ve lost your argument.
And I assume the prosecutors will ensure that the driver all their insurer will make good all of the damage so that this piece of our heritage can be quickly restored at no expense to the owner?
…nah, they never give a crap about damage to property…
VERY sad. I pray it can be restored.