Walking Tour of Basseterre

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM is located in what used to be the Treasury Building. It is also the home of the St. Christopher National Trust. Once situated on the Basseterre Bay front, the building is now at the meeting point of Basseterre and the reclaimed land of Port Zante. The Treasury actually moved to the corner of Church Street and Central Street in 1996 and the National Museum gradually moved in.

In 1857 St. Kitts had a new treasury building probably constructed of wood and which included a light house. £600 had been allocated for the project. Before returning the remaining sum to the Treasury, the Committee of Public Buildings bought a clock and placed it on the north side of the building facing Fort Street then deposited the balance of £9 10. 6. It was left over from the project. However in December of that same year money had to be found again for the construction of a privy at the Treasury Building.

The Circus is the hub of Basseterre. It is a recognised landmark and a popular meeting place. The Circus owes its origins to the fire that destroyed Basseterre on July 4th, 1867. The whole town east of West Square street was devastated. The inefficiencies of the fire department were, at least in part, responsible for the magnitude of the disaster. When Basseterre was rebuilt, it was decided to make its streets easier for the fire truck to navigate. Among the new arrangements were the widening of Fort Street and the laying down of the Circus. In 1883 a memorial to Thomas Berkeley was placed at its centre. Because it contained a fountain and a clock, and it was erected on a platform which quickly became a seating area, it encouraged the gathering of people in the Circus.

The Berkeley Memorial was erected in 1883 and was for a long time the only public memorial commemorating an individual in St. Kitts. It was dedicated to the memory of Thomas Berkeley Hardtman Berkeley, a legislator and owner of the estates called Fountain, Greenland, Greenhill, Ottleys, Shadwell and Stone Fort.

The structure contains a clock and drinking fountain. It was designed and produced by George Smith and Co of Glasgow, Scotland. Two other similar structures were produced by the foundry but only the one in St. Kitts survives.

INDEPENDENCE SQUARE formerly Pall Mall Square, was renamed on the 19th September 1983 to commemorate the birth of the new nation of St. Christopher and Nevis. It is located on the eastern side of Basseterre bordering on Newtown. Its layout was designed to look like a Union Jack and the streets and houses surrounding it once dated to the mid-eighteenth century. Unfortunately, time and environmental damage have destroyed many of them. Some like the Court House and Public Library have been destroyed by fire and have been rebuilt.

CO-CATHEDRAL OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION is an ornate church constructed out of grey stone and located on the eastern side of Independence Square. In the early years of the French occupation of St. Kitts, the Jesuits had build a Roman Catholic Church and dedicated it to Our Lady. Notre Dame was burned in 1706 during the Anglo-French war and rebuilt later as St. Georges Anglican Church. The catholic congregation in St. Kitts diminished drastically in the years following the Treaty of Utrecht.

ST. GEORGE’S ANGLICAN CHURCH is the largest church in Basseterre. It stands at the head of Church Street and resembles an English parish church in style. The outer walls are of heavy andesite rock and the roof is covered in slate. Like many of the buildings in Basseterre this church has had its ups and downs, often rising from ashes like the mythical Phoenix.

In 1635, at the request of the directors of the Company of the Isles of America, the Provincial of the Capuchin Friars of Normandy assigned three men, Fathers Jerome, Marc and Pacifique de Provins to care for the spiritual needs of the French colonists on St. Kitts and to attempt the conversion of the small Kalinago population that remained on the island after the massacre of 1627. In Basseterre they erected a place of worship which Rochefort describes as a fair Church able to contain a very great Congregation: The Structure is of wood, rais'd on a foundation of Free-stone: Instead of Glass-windows there are only turned Pillars, after the fashion of a Balcony. It is cover'd with red Slate. The Friars also had churches in Cayon and Capisterre but in 1646, Governor De Poincy felt that they were taking sides against him and ordered them to leave the colony. He replaced them with the Jesuits. In 1672 they built a church which they called Notre Dame.

The wars that ravaged St. Kitts well into the 18th century caused destruction everywhere. Even the churches were not spared.