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the stories of our proud and friendly people, our charming and colourful villages, our fascinating ruins, our intriguing rain forests,
and our traditions that span centuries.

Our People

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Dr. Lenore Harney

 

  Jean Lenore Harney was born in St. Kitts on April 14th, 1925 to Mr. John Leonard Harney, a local businessman, and his wife, Mae.   She was the youngest of their five daughters.   She was educated, both at the primary and secondary levels, in St. Kitts.  As a student at the Girls High School,  Lenore (the name she was better known by) competed for the Leeward Islands Scholarship against other outstanding students, male and female,  from all...

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John H. A. Duport

 

John H. A. Duport John H. A. Duport was born in the Parish of St. Thomas, Middle Island in either 1830 or 1831 and may have been the son of enslaved parents. Nothing is known of his childhood but he must have been a good student and seems to have developed an interest in the Anglican Church during his teenage years. In 1851, Archdeacon Brathwaite of St. George’s recommended two young men for training for a new...

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Ras Tambora Kitwana

 

Ras Tambora Kitwana Ras Tambora Kitwana was born on the 7th Jan 1949 and given the name Fitzroy Christian Matthew. He grew up in Irish Town. His interest in music started early in life and at the age of 14 he started performing with the Joseph Liburd Orchestra. Known variously as Fitzy, Chili, Jerry Mopstick and finally as Tamora, he moved through the Kittitian musical arena with the ease of one born to be a musician...

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Our Places

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The Sugar Factory

 

Sugar Factory, St. Kitts   From the time of settlement St. Kitts was developed as a plantation island. At first the plantations were small and produced such commodities as tobacco, cotton, and indigo. Over the 17th century sugar cane started gaining ground. It took a while for it to become the main and only crop because it required a great deal more investment than other crops. Sugar estates developed as self-contained industrial complexes, each with its own...

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Bank Street

 

Bank Street The Road heading east from the Circus is Bank Street. A bank has been at its southern corner where it meets Fort Street for almost 200 years. The first one was probably Colonial Bank which was set up by Royal Charter in 1836 to trade in the West Indies. The former enslavers had been given £20 million as compensation for the loss of their unpaid labour. This meant that there was a significant increase in...

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Charles Fort

 

Charles Fort Entrance   Based on “The Military and institutional Occupations of Charles Fort, St. Kitts, West Indies” by Gerald Schroedl and Todd M Ahlman in Historical Archaeologies of the Caribbean: Contextualizing Sites through Colonialism, Capitalism and Globalism edited by Todd M Ahlman and Gerald F Schroedl (Tuscaloosa, University of Alabama Press, 2020) The Second Anglo-Dutch war was fought between 1665 and 1667. France became involved as it had a defensive alliance with Holland. In St. Kitts where...

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Our Events

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The Arts Festival - 18 Aug 1964

 

Arts Festival - String Band, St. Kitts   On the 18th August 1964, the Education Centre, now the Basseterre High School, was the venue of “an evening of One Act Plays”. The plays were The Doctor in spite of Himself, by Moliere produced by Eustace John and Sunday Costs twenty-five dollars produced by Aimee Dinzey. This was the beginning of the first Arts Festival in St. Kitts that was to last for 15 days. The idea of an...

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Carnival - New Years Day

 

In June 1957 Basil Henderson, Major L.N Alphonso, Tony Lawrence, Leroy Coury, Alexis Knight, E Vanterpool and Al Barker formed a temporary committee entrusted with the planning of St. Kitts’ first Carnival. It was felt that a Carnival along the lines of the Trinidad one would help the economy and give visitors something to look forward to. By the end of that year St. Kitts had its first queen show, Calypso Show and street parade...

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An Account of the Damage to St. George's Church from the Earthquake of 1974

 

An earthquake of magnitude 6.5 on the Richter scale occurred at about 5:55 a.m. on October 8th 1974, and did considerable damage to the St George’s Parish Church. The epicentre of this quake was some 40 miles east of Antigua, and 60 miles below the surface of the earth. The nave of the church consists of two rows of stone columns on either side. The first of these columns was separated from the east dome of...

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"In this  bright future, you can't forget your past"

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