Crocus Hill, the highest elevation in Anguilla, site of the old Court House, Post Office and a Prison, and now to be restored, is to accommodate another building of much significance to the island.
It will be the Anguilla National Trust Building, now located in The Valley, where an old public health facility is providing accommodation. Soon, however, that structure is to be demolished to give way to The Valley Polyclinic complex.
Executive Director of the National Trust, Ms. Farah Mukhida, spoke to The Anguillian newspaper about the coming new project: “We haven’t actually started any work on the building but awarded the contract to K.R. Services of North Valley in January this year,” she disclosed. “We are hoping to break ground in March. For the time being, we have just been discussing the designs with the contractor.”
Asked to describe the building, Ms. Mukhida said: “It is going to be built for purpose. We are keeping it fairly simple. We are just having office and storage space and then we would like to have an interpretation centre in one of our offices. It will be to highlight some of the work, main habitat, species, heritage sites and events we are focusing on.
“We think this building will actually complement the restoration of the old Court House where they are hoping to construct a Museum as well. So we will have this beautiful Museum and a National Trust office. They will be very complementary. We are pretty excited to be in that location and to be so close to the old Court House restoration initiative.
“The architect for our new building is Debra Wynter who did the designs for us. We had to do some small tweets to the proposed building because of cost constraints. It will be a modern concrete building, but more of a heritage type design.”
Asked about the cost of the new National Trust building, the Executive Director stated: “We were very lucky to receive funds from the Governor’s Office for the relocation of our office. We have received a generous donation from the Governor’s Office which we will likely have to top up just because of the cost of construction these days – which is quite high. We are hoping that the work will not take more than ten months so probably by the end of this year, and early next year, it should be completed. But things happen and we do not know what the hurricane season will bring; and there could be some unexpected bumps on the way.
“It is hoped that ground for The Valley Polyclinic will be broken within the next couple of weeks, so we will be relocating to Government House which has been very generously donated by the Governor’s Office. The new National Trust building will be on the same parcel of land as the old Court House, and we have sub-divided the land there for both projects.”
Ms. Mukhida recalled that the National Trust began its operations in the old Valley Health Clinic building in 1991. “We are sad to be leaving because of the historical significance of the site and it is a beautiful building. I think it was Ian Smith who did some of the design work on the old building – and added some of the present touches, and I think he will be doing something similar at the old Court House site.”
About the Trust’s new building, she said: “I am excited to be moving there because it will be a better fit for the work we do as a growing organisation. However, we are not only sad that we are leaving but because the building will be torn down, unfortunately; but we understand that The Valley Polyclinic needs to be done.”
