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Our People

Sir Probyn Innis

 

Probyn Ellsworth Inniss was born on the 18th November 1936 at Challengers Village.  he was a student of the St. Kitts Grammar School.  he attended Trinity Government Primary School from 1942 to 1949.  In 1949 he won the St. Kitts Nevis Trades and Labour Union Scholarship to the Grammar School from which he graduated in 1955.  For the following two years he worked in the Treasury and Customs Department then went to study at the...

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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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Notes from an Interview

 

Eyewitness: Cyril Halbert Date: 28th January 2005 Place: National Archives Cyril Halbert was about twelve years old in January 1935. He was a student at the Grammar school which at the time was run by Mr. Williams, an English man. The teachers were Branch, Wooding and Matheson. There were about forty boys at the school. On the 29th January 1935, all the boys were sent home. They were urged to go home as soon as possible and to...

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Our Places

The National Museum

 

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...

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The Port of Sandy Point and its Anchorage

 

Part 1 by Cameron St. Pierre Gill The town of Sandy Point was the first major seaport on the island of St. Christopher (St. Kitts), the earliest English colony in the British West Indies. Many mistakenly claim that Sandy Point was St. Kitts first English town. This is not so, that honour belongs to Old Road, the site of Thomas Warner’s first settlement. When St. Kitts was divided between the English and French, Old Road was the...

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The Zion Moravian Church

 

The Zion Moravian Church is a solid structure at the point where College Street and Victoria Road meet. Perhaps its most impressive feature, is its very tall windows. Its interior is modest and uncluttered. In 1774, while on a visit to England, the American born lawyer, John Gardiner, met with Moravian representatives Benjamin La Trobe and John Wollin. Having gone through a politically strenuous time in St. Kitts, Gardiner was growing disenchanted with both the secular...

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Our Events

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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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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Disasters in Basseterre

 

Hurricanes Wars were not the only dramatic events to effect the development of Basseterre. Natural disasters played a very significant roll.The 1642 and 1667 hurricanes destroyed all the houses on the island. In 1667 French Governor Laurent reported I hold myself obliged to inform you that this island is in the most deplorable state that can be imagined and that the inhabitants could not have suffered a greater loss, or been more unfortunate except they had...

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

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