National Trust reviewing dwindling heritage sites
(CNS): The National Trust for the Cayman Islands is conducting an update of its historic register and compiling information about the remaining old time Caymanian homes, historic structures, artefacts and relics. Alongside efforts to protect Cayman’s natural environment, the Trust also aims to preserve its built heritage, though this has been an uphill battle. The country has no laws or listing system, so once a property is acquired, the owners are free to destroy even the oldest and unique buildings.
In November last year Cayman Brac lost the old Hanson Movie Theatre and Department Store, and there has been a proliferation recently of Facebook groups and pages created by residents nostalgic about the huge amount of history that has been lost in just a few decades.
While homes and other important buildings have been lost to storms over the years, more have been flattened by bulldozers. The Ministry of Culture introduced a Culture and Heritage Policy in 2017, but very little has been done to implement it, and it appears that the policy committee has not met since 2019. In addition, there has never been any indication that money would be set aside to buy heritage sites or that any conservation laws would be introduced to prevent the destruction of the remaining historically significant buildings.
However, in an effort to count and document all the historic buildings that are left, volunteers will be out and about for the next few months in all districts, collecting data, taking photos and speaking with people about the history of their homes and the important familial relations or prominent people that make each structure special, the Trust said in a release.
As they go about the work, officials from the Trust will have identification cards to confirm that they are representing the non-profit organisation, and the the public is being asked to help them as much as possible as they add to the historic record for future generations before these properties are lost.
The Trust continues to need the community’s help, as the only way to save the remaining heritage properties is for the non-profit to acquire them in the same way it buys land to protect and conserve important native habitat and the species in it.
For information on the historic register visit the Trust site here
or email historic@nationaltrust.org.kyTo find out how to support the Trust by making a donation, becoming a corporate partner, sponsoring a historic or environmental site, or becoming a member, call 749-1121.
Category: Local News
Caption photo, the “owner” should have paid for the demolition also! FYI, Presently Building a new building on the same site.
Point of Sand in Little Cayman should be a heritage site/national treasure and protected from Dart!
Most of your heritage sites of any interest are already saved: customhouse, pedro castle, ruin of Ft George, mission house, numerouswattle &daub and concrete cayman style houses, Petra plantation, pirate cave, crystal cavern, governor’s bird sanctuary, hell, smith cove, east end lighthouse, mastic trail, the downtown church, library and memorial, etc. The movie theater is no doubt the site of many happy memories but was it really heritage worth preserving for its own sake? Not to me. If there is additional heritage to be preserved you should make a list now and do the necessary, instead of making dubious claims only after a property owner does something that irks you (yes like the sinkhole on the Brac.)
“Ruin of Ft George”. Yes, left a ruin after our first National Hero James Bodden personally demolished it. Bet they don’t teach that in schools.
heritage sites?….more like tin roofed shacks…
caymanian heritage and culture….luaghable stuff.
So bitter.
Wow. That’s really disrespectful dude.
It is unrealistic to expect the government or the National Trust to own anything worth preserving. If a buyer buys a historic property, they should not be able to get planning permission to raize it.
Oh now they are concern??? After years of ignoring the degradation of cultural sites. SMH.
CNS: The National Trust has always been concerned but there is little they can do without laws to protect cultural sites, which they don’t have the power to make, or money to buy land and property, which they never have enough of. Plus the owners must agree to sell, but might see more profit in bulldozing the old buildings to make way for modern developments. Either way, You’re shaking your head in the wrong direction.
Unfortunately, many natives do not even have enough money to buy land for themselves.. much less land to preserve..
Perhaps this demand is the result of a policy which results in having to compete with foreign millionaires who buy land for points.
Caymanian culture teaches disrespect for all things. Including Caymanian culture and heritage. This is all just a cultural misunderstanding.
You might have IQ but you sure badly need some EQ.
Your government doesn’t give a sh*t about heritage or national identity.
They have allowed and accelerated the sell-off and rampant development of the island to a point where any identity is being crushed and diluted by concrete
Development is a good thing when considered properly but they’ve allowed a free-for-all. Who in their right mind green lights Periwinkle, Harbour Walk, Aura and Indigo Bay all to be developed on Hurleys Roundabout knowing the volume of additional traffic on the worst bottleneck on island? And the bottom line is that they know most people living in the eastern districts are Caymanian and civil servants so in my opinion, the government are knowingly allowing peoples quality of life to suffer.
100% agree
You vote them in.
Now CNS what your article did not state was just how rundown and structurally insecure that the old BB Grant store had become.
The owners had neglected the building for years and years, while at the same time building new commercial buildings near the airport.
At some point in time this building would have collapsed on its own.
Please note that a family member is building a new commercial building just northwest of the former old store.
While I’m a family member, I had no controlling stake in the property. I shared concerns about the safety of the gentleman staying in the upstairs bedroom.
To my understanding, it would’ve been like paying to re-enforce a wet paper bag. At some point, no sense and the whole thing needs to go.
Thank you family member for stating the obvious – it is not if the collective ownership interest did not have the funds to completely restore the old building, but knocking it down and building another one just a few feet away seems to have made more sense.
Okay National Trust the ball is in your court on this one.
Now that Daggaro has started just west of the West End Community Park, what is to stop them from buying the old Bert Marson house that is just east of West End Community Park.
Bert Marson’s house surely must be considered a site worthy of preserving. It is noted that the house has been for sale for a period of time – so here is your chance National Trust.
And bye the way if Daggaro does buy this house, really don’t want to hear all the bitching and complaining ….as it would only be stating the obvious that this nearby parcel would be suitable for them to expand to in the future.
Thanks Anonymous. Please send your cheque for $500,000 (or whatever the purchase price is) to the National Trust and they’ll buy the house.
Tooooo late tooo late for Cayman!
“Historic structures”? I’ve probably got shirts in my wardrobe that are older than that “historic structure” on the brac. It’s not exactly the pantheon is it?
Pastor Alfredo
This government has allowed the wholesale pillaging and destruction of so many historical sites and buildings with their development we get rich scheme. Some of their political cohorts have even part taken in the sale of treasure trove and historic significant items to buyers overseas and with the current imbecile chairman and minister responsible for culture are you honestly surprise.Their are handful of people left trying to preserve or natural and historical treasures and sites Some recents finds are of great significance to Cayman but yet not a single person has been acknowledged nor recognized by this Greedy wealth driven society and political whores now sitting in or Legislative Assembly. And this Rubber Stamp we call a governor
6:26 pm… Please list the many historical sites that have been destroyed by this Government. I bet you cant. Cause there are none.
You try hush Government cannot even maintain the Marine heritage Signs it has round the place current chairman too busy eating mangoes and talking pure foolisness another EX PPM politician who needs a job stipend to live well and control government.
Unfortunately, cash is always being crowned king with no questions asked or allowed. C.R.E.A.M. (bonus if you understand the reference).
History is apparently only important when great amounts of money, wealth and over-inflated egos are involved. Smh.
Sad is an extremely heavy understatement here in the Cayman Islands.
The National Trust Law seriously needs to be re-evaluated and enforced with heavy financial and criminal repercussions because it is freefalling short of its intended purpose in the first place.
These short-sighted greed mongerers need to learn somehow. As the old saying goes, “What you don’t hear you feel.”
I think the precedent was set by our first National Hero when he bulldozed the Old Fort in George Town.
You lie! He wasn’t actually on that bulldozer!
Yes he was, 5:55pm, and it was not a bulldozer as such it was a backhoe. In the good old days, copies of a photo of him doing it appeared in the press but for the longest while this photo seems to have been suppressed, possibly because it is so embarrassing.