4/25/2008 10:43:00 AM Historic hall looks doomed Sources say sale of building — once a hub of black society — is near completion and that demolition will follow
Set to be razed? Alexandrina Hall on Court Street. *Photo by Leah Furbert
Meredith Ebbin
Calls to save historic Alexandrina Hall in Hamilton have fallen on deaf ears. The Grand United Order of Oddfellows are close to closing the deal that will see the 19th century building sold to developer Ramadhin Smith, demolished and a new building put up in its place, the Bermuda Sun has been told. Mr. Smith is a partner in the neighbouring Canadian Hotel development along with Ted Powell, though Mr. Powell told us this week he is not involved with the Alexandrina Hall deal. Mr. Smith would not comment yesterday and Leo Mills, chairman of the Oddfellows trustees, would only say: “There is not a completed agreement.” Last week, Mr. Mills described the building as “a great hub of black Bermudian society for decades.” Asked yesterday whether there was a chance the sale would not go through, he said: “There is always hope.” The Bermuda Sun has been told by an informed source that the sale of the building is “a done deal”. Concerns about what the impending sale represents continue to mount. The lodge, which was built by black Bermudians, dates back to 1852. Alexandrina Hall was one of string of lodges built throughout Bermuda by blacks in the first decades following Emancipation. They served as helping and personal development organizations and included in their ranks top community leaders, among them founders of the Berkeley Institute. Premier Ewart Brown’s own great-grandfather Clarence Darrell, a Flatts landowner, was a leading lodge man and help put together the funding that allowed members to build the Colonial Opera House, a major centre for performing arts that was flattened by a hurricane. One of the members of the Grand United Order of Oddfellows was Joseph Hayne Rainey, the former American slave who escaped to Bermuda during the U.S. Civil War and later became the first member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Some critics appear to be resigned to the fate of the building but Bermuda Sun columnist Larry Burchall does not mince his words in this week’s column (see above). He said: “This black-led, black-run government seems to place the same value on Bermuda’s black heritage as those African chiefs who used to capture their fellow black Africans, shackle and chain them, herd them to the water’s edge, and then sell them to the men who had no colour… Selling black men and black women was wrong. Selling Bermuda’s black heritage is just as wrong.” A PLP source, who did not want to be identified, told the Bermuda Sun yesterday: “I am sickened by the whole thing.” Joy Wilson-Tucker, a member of Mayflower Lodge on Victoria Street and a strong proponent of the legacy of lodges, told the Bermuda Sun yesterday that some of the Oddfellows were unaware that Alexandrina Hall was about to be sold and only heard about it when they read it in the newspaper. She said she did not think members had the power to stop the sale because it’s already in the works and trustees have the power to act on behalf of its members. Mr. Mills said the lodge had about 20 members. But many of them are believed to be elderly. Over the years interest in lodges has dwindled because Government has taken over much of the functions that lodges use to perform.
Canadian Hotel development The Bermuda Sun contacted Oddfellow Irene Seaton who said a lodge brother had told her that the lodge had been approached to sell the property, but that the sale had not gone through. Mr. Smith’s interest in purchasing Alexandrina Hall is believed to have come about because of its proximity to the Canadian Hotel development. It begins on Reid Street East and continues around the corner to Booth Memorial Hall on Court Street, which is two doors down from Alexandrina Hall. Cabinet recently granted the Canadian Hotel development an SDO — even though the Architectural Advisory Committee said the building lacked character and the developers had submitted insufficient information about the impact of traffic and sewage. Plans are to erect a 10-storey condominium hotel. Mr. Powell, owner of the Spot Restaurant, told the Bermuda Sun he had been buying properties along Reid Street for the past 25 years. “It’s a collection of properties that I put together,” he said. He said he received planning permission to build an office building several years ago, but it needed several companies to share the building for it to be viable. He said the property lent itself to some type of residential development. He said Mr. Smith was a partner with the hotel segment of the development, but overseas investors were also involved. He could not say when construction would get under way. “This is a first step,” he said. “We need to know what would be permitted to be put there.” Alexandrina Hall was not included in the SDO. Meanwhile, Culture Minister Dale Butler, who several weeks ago said he would ask his Cabinet colleagues to consider buying the building would not comment yesterday. The Oddfellows rent the building to United Productions Dance School, which has received notice to quit the building. The Canadian Hotel was last used as a rooming house but only the ground floor is currently occupied on the orders of the Fire Department. It also represents a segment of black Bermudian heritage. It was owned up the 1960s by James “Dick” Richards, a Jamaican immigrant who became one of the richest black men in Bermuda.
Posted: Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Comment by:
Sakaela Ebbin-Simons
This place is a place for children and teens to dance and you shouldn't knock it down because I am a part of the United Dance Productions and you do not need to demolish it
ALRIGHT, OK
