THINGS THAT MATTER: The Synagogue Block Restoration Project, Philanthropy & Bridgetown
Last week in the House and this week in the Senate a Resolution was passed vesting a parcel of land in the Synagogue Block Restoration Project in the Barbados Jewish Community, to expand the Jewish cemetery. The site is North of the Synagogue and old cemetery, and is part of the overall plan for the restoration and redevelopment of the whole Synagogue Block, bounded on the South by James Street and on the West by Coleridge Street.
The opportunity was taken both in the House and in the Senate to discuss the importance of the UNESCO World Heritage site, Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison, and especially the ongoing Synagogue Block Restoration Project. This project is funded by a great philanthropist. It’s been incubating for some years and is now near completion, under the direction of Joe Steinbok. It comprises a complete re-landscaping of the area; restoration of the eight beautiful old artisans’ workshops on James Street; restoration of the old Fire Station, later Johnson’s Stables and then the Weights and Measures Unit; the building of a tasteful community centre / reception area and of a monument marking the location of Codd’s House, where Parliament sat in the 1830s and where the historic Emancipation Bill was passed. The restoration of the Carnegie Library and the old Supreme Court opposite was expected to complement this historic city core and create a unique centre for the revitalisation of Bridgetown.
Parliamentarians waxed warm and welcoming on the Synagogue Block Project. It was a great irony, considering the 1981 plan, when Government bought the Synagogue, to demolish it and build a new Supreme Court. Fortunately, the vision and leadership of Paul Altman and the Jewish Community prevailed, and the magnificent, world famous and award-winning restored Synagogue is one of our most important, interesting and valuable historic treasures, along with the Nidhe Israel Museum and the extraordinary discovery of the Mikvah, the spiritual bath. All of this is largely due to the vision, leadership, generosity and fund raising of Paul Altman and his family and friends.
Plans to include the whole block were drawn up some time ago, and the major contribution of Mr. Geoff Ramsey must be recognised. There are two architectural treasures on the site. The first is the splendid row of artisans’ workshops – recognised by their pink colour - perhaps the most photographed site in Bridgetown after Nelson’s statue and the Parliament buildings. I use them on Bridgetown tours to explain the history of coral stone construction in Barbados over three centuries. The other delightful building is on the corner of James and Coleridge Street. It was the first Fire Station, in the days of horse drawn “fire engines”. It will be a wonderful example of adaptive re-use, as an art gallery and cafeteria.
Philanthropy in Barbados
All of this is due to the generosity of the Tabor Foundation, set up by a lover of Barbados, Mr. Mike Tabor. It’s almost certainly the single largest donation to the people of Barbados since the bequest of Andromeda Botanical Gardens to the Barbados National Trust by the late Mrs. Iris Bannochie, widow of the famous Dr. Harry Bayley. Of course, the greatest philanthropic donor to Barbados is the Maria Holder Memorial Trust, with its continuing support for education and care of the children of Barbados. They made a contribution to the Carnegie Library Restoration Project, funding a Project Officer for the past two years, but the Implementation Deficit Disorder Epidemic that has Barbados in its grip has not permitted much progress with that project.
There are multiple reasons for this, but one of the major reasons is refusal of the private sector as a whole to contribute to the cause, citing delinquency of Government and absence of evidence of Government support. As so many CEOS have said to me, perhaps a tad unkindly, “What’s the use? Government will only let it all decay again”. But I take this opportunity of acknowledging the support of Mr. Richard Edghill, Realtors Ltd, Banks, and several private donors; but what can forty thousand dollars do with a four million dollar project?
This column calls for a kind of confession. I confess that my Barbados National Trust Codrington College Restoration Committee (1988), chaired by the late Jill Shepherd, my National Trust Tyrol Cot Committee (1991 - 92), with the energy of Margaret Dowding, and my own fund raising to establish the Chronic Disease Research Centre (1993 – 96) all raised more than a million dollars each. But in today’s climate philanthropists seem few and far between.
Barbados is home, either permanently, periodically or in the winter, to numerous billionaires and multi-millionaires, who passionately declare their love for Barbados, and I have had a dream that most of our magnificent historic Treasures in Ruin might be restored as gestures and monuments to this great love for Barbados. But alas - apart from the unmatched generosity of the two charities mentioned – Tabor and Maria Holder – and the Sandy Lane event, where a few wealthy consciences are salved every January, philanthropy is a lost art. There are not many local Iris Bannochies here, and not many Mr. Tabors there. In today’s uncertain economic climate, every million must be tightly guarded!
Government has now acknowledged our fine financial pickle, as the hot-off-the-press news of the Economic Committee with Mr. Arthur, the historic meeting of the Full Social Partnership, and the latest downgrade indicate, so there’s little room for manoeuvre in saving our World Heritage site. Of course, ALL Governments’ failures for forty years to budget for maintenance of buildings is the underlying cause of the cancer. But it’s really a matter of priorities, and the roughly four-million-dollar restoration tab for the Carnegie is less than one thousandth of our national budget. It would benefit youth, research and development, tourism and the whole population with a much needed decent, state-of-the-art library. Tourism, education and culture are all stakeholders, and it would be about 0.1 % of their combined budgets!
But as Senator Harry Husbands said in the Senate on Wednesday, Bajans are still ambivalent about our heritage. Colonial days were bad days and ancestral memories linger long. As one famous politician said to a global audience 24 years ago: “In order to build we must first destroy”. Fortunately, the Egyptians never destroyed the pyramids built by thousands of toiling serfs, who for sure weren’t unionised. Those pyramids and other amazing artefacts of their slavery are the salvation of Egypt’s economy. Likewise, we get to see the dramatic history of England’s vicious tyrant kings in the famous Tower of London, Britain’s top attraction. The glorious 1905 Carnegie Library, like so much else before 1966, was built with the creativity, skills and sweat of our ancestors. When we treasure such treasures we’re memorialising our ancestors.
And so, the debates in the Chambers of Parliament were a bitter-sweet event for me. Logical and far sighted in my advocacy for the preservation of our historic treasures, labouring, with colleagues, as Chairman of the Nomination of Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison as a World Heritage site, and passionate as a book lover for our young people to have a beautiful, inspiring, state of the art Carnegie Library, my giving up after so many years of effort, and resigning from the Preservation Trust, was sad. I am trying to be hopeful, after prolific praises sung in Parliament for preservation of our heritage, that the Estimates will put Government’s money where the mouth is, and will thus inspire the private sector to do their part for the future of Barbados.
Postscript: There is concern that the building of a tall Hyatt on Bay Street will cause loss of our World Heritage status, with its tourism and economic benefits. The failure to restore the Dirty Derelict Dozen historic buildings in Bridgetown is much more likely to lead to its loss. My own solution to the Hyatt proposal is to negotiate with UNESCO the re-defining of the boundaries, and exclude that coastal one third of a mile from the Hyatt site to the old Baggage Warehouse, which contains nothing of Grade 1 or 2 historic or architectural value, and permit the kind of development there planned twenty years ago. World Heritage status must not fossilise a capital city.
Professor Fraser is Past Dean of Medical Sciences, UWI and Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology. Website: profhenryfraser.com