The Story of White Hall (Rosenweg) at the Beginning of World War ll
(1940–1944)
This year marks the 70th anniversary of World War II, where powerful nations fought one another and a great many lives were loss. In 1945 it all came to an abrupt end after the United States of America dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In commemorating this anniversary, this article highlights the history of White Hall during World War II which was the headquarters of the U.S. military until 1944. Like the many other heritage sites featured on previous posts, White Hall has fallen to disrepair. Instead of having a white elephant hover over the Port of Spain prison, White Hall will be a better location for a museum for the arts or the history of the Cacao industry that allows public access to these sites and extending its longevity for the future.
A Brief History About White Hall
In 1903, Joseph León Agostini purchased the lot on 29 Maraval Road, St. Clair for £1000 and was subjected to a lease of 199 years. On this land he laid the foundation to build a magnificent mansion of splendid beauty of his own design. This mansion was to be named Rosenweg (path of roses) and was to reflect his own Corsican heritage (Moorish Mediterranean style) as he was born in 1839 in Corsica; the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. He had gained his fortunes within the cacao industry from his marriage to Marie Josephine, the daughter of Andre Ambard who owned the firm Ambard and Son. With this wealth he owned a considerable amount of land in the Caura Valley for his Cacao estate.
Construction began in 1904 and took three years at a cost of $80,000. Coral stone were shipped by sloop from Barbados, chiselled into blocks on site and was set with lime mortar for the construction. Coral stone was ideal as its numerous pores provided ventilation from the Caribbean heat.
In 1905 Joseph León Agostini found himself in financial difficulties because of the high cost of construction and the decline of the cacao industry, he had to forfeit the property to Gordon Grant and Company to repay his debts. After his death in 1906, his wife Marie Josephine through William Gordon Gordon sold the property to an American businessman Robert Henderson for an extremely reduced price of $34,144.86. Mr. Henderson was an American businessman who had owned a company called Dalton and Company in Ciudad Bolivar which supplied goods to a large part of eastern Venezuela. This proved vital and profitable as Venezuela was suffering from a many civil unrests like the Venezuela Crisis of 1902–1903.
It was from the brilliant white coral that was used to construct the mansion that the Hendersons got the inspiration to rename Rosenweg White Hall. The design for White Hall is based on Palladian architecture inspired by the works of Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). This style has its origins in classic Greek and Roman architecture, focused primarily on symmetry and perspective, with its mixture of both cusped and rounded arches, Moorish characteristics.
White Hall had three floors excluding the wine cellar in the basement and the penthouse called the Blue room. Above the Blue room was a balustraded roof with two cupolas on each end, offering an uninterrupted panorama of Queen’s Park Savannah. However this prominent feature has long since vanished as it was condemned in 1954 and was replaced by a galvanised roof (see image at the beginning). On its northern and eastern walls are porticos and grand marble staircases that greeted many guests to one of many extravagant social gatherings hosted by the Hendersons.
Anthony de Verteuil, in his book The Great Eight, gives a vivid description of the atmosphere surrounding one such event.
The setting for the parties given there was truly magnificent. The newly cut coral of the building, bright white in the moonlight; huge gilded mirrors in the spacious entrance hall reflecting the light from glittering chandeliers; the welcoming light streaming from the windows, as the carriages and two or three shiny motor cars are drawing up, the ladies in their long flowing dresses with their escorts happily assisting them up the marble steps; the garden in front bathed in quiet light away from the select music of well-dressed musicians, and the dancing and laughter and the titillating waving of the ladies little fans, with the light from the chandeliers in the ballroom multiplied in the gilded mirrors, reflecting now the graceful glidings of the waltz. The best French and Italian wines with well-presented food to suit the most fastidious taste.
After the deaths of Robert Henderson (1918) and his wife Narcissa Maria Nunez (1931), their daughter Narcissa (Nina) Henderson and her husband Alfredo Galo Siegert were the last residents of White Hall. However they only stayed there for seven months while their house on 39 Alexandra street was being renovated. From 1937 the space was used for various charity events and concerts until in 1941 when the U.S. Army took over White Hall as their headquarters at the beginning of World War ll.
It must be noted when the U.S moved into White Hall, most of the furniture and lavish interior decorations that was furnished by Narcissa Nunez were removed, never to be seen again.
Bases for Destroyers Agreement Between Britain and the United States of America
With the fervor of World War II reaching tumultuous levels with the invasion of Poland by Hitler on September 1st, 1939 and the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii by the Japanese on December 31st, 1941, the three nations of Britain, USSR and USA joined forces and become Allies against the aggression of the Axis which included Germany, Italy and Japan.
Even before the attack of Pearl Harbor, the United States of America remained as a neutral nation throughout the beginning of the war. It was British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill that convinced U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt that should Britain ever lose the war, its territories in the Caribbean could be dominated by an enemy nation that would jeopardise the U.S. To prevent this from happening the U.S. signed in September 1940 the bases for destroyers agreement with Britain. This benefited Britain as its territories are secured with a U.S. presence and it receives fifty destroyers added to their already overstretched resources. In exchange the U.S. gets to establish their bases in Bahamas, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Antigua and British Guiana for ninety-nine lease free years.
This heralded a new American Era for the people of Trinidad and the government was very accepting of their new North American allies. All legalities were arranged with great speed to accommodate the U.S. military. One such example was the Lease Bill that was passed by the Legislative Council on January 17th, 1941 and took only a single day, which was uncommon. The Lease Bill had given the U.S. military full access to 32 square miles of land which included 11 square miles in Chaguaramas for a naval base and 19 miles for Waller Field air force base in Cumuto.
The head engineer in charge of the construction of these bases was Major David Oden. Under his supervision the construction and preparation of all the bases, airfields and various facilities took only a few months. This was due to a large contingency of engineers and a vast workforce. To house all the engineers, White Hall was commandeered by the U.S. military from the Henderson/Seigert family to be used as their base of action from 1941 to 1944.
Below is an article featured in LIFE Magazine, April 7, 1941 provided by Geoffrey Maclean describing the early stages of preparation of the bases.
Trinidad Bastion
U.S Starts Building Base on British Isle
Deep in the island of Trinidad, 10˚ north of the equator, U.S. engineers laboured last week converting one of the world’s great jungles into one of the world’s great strongholds of military and naval power. North on Antigua and St. Lucia, south in British Guiana (Guyana), other Americans were at work. And ships streaming down from the states brought throngs of U.S. construction workers to reinforce native hands and speed the building of garrisons, camps and roads on the far flung bases acquired from Britain in the destroyer trade of September 1940. Not many months from now the Caribbean Sea, strategic key to two-ocean defense, will become the “American lake” of which the late Admiral Mahan dreamed.
Since the day last fall when President Roosevelt announced acquisition of Britain’s West Indian bases, many delegations of Army and Navy experts and engineers have sailed south to Trinidad and Antigua, to survey, negotiate, make maps. There have been difficulties and delays. The rainy season impeded progress. But in January rains ended and now the U.S. is racing the summer solstice.
Of all the America’s newly acquired bases, Trinidad is incomparably the most important. It is the bastion that guards the vulnerable southern passage to Panama, the anchor that weights the chain of minor bases curving northwestward from South America to Guantanamo Bay. It could be, if circumstances ordain it, a jumping-off place for military operations on the great continent to the south. Rich in sugar, oil and other resources, it is an outpost of inestimable value. How highly the Army and Navy prize Trinidad is evident in the special appropriations bill now under consideration in Congress. Of an estimated $318,050,000 asked for the development of new Atlantic bases, $90,000,000 or nearly one-third is marked for Trinidad.
Army Engineer Plant Base in the heart of the Tropic Jungle
Here in the steamy, shadowy heart of Trinidad’s ancient jungle, U.S. engineers and surveyors tediously uncover and plot the contours of land on which no man-made walls ever before were reared. Here a great army garrison, equipped with barracks, aviation fields, hangars and officer’s homes, will soon begin to rise. The process is incredibly arduous. For before a transit can be set up or a marker put in place, alleyways must be hacked inch by inch through the green inviolate bush.
On the coast the task is simpler. There other Americans are building a $49,955,000 naval base with shops, seaplane ramps and deep-sea anchorage for both light and heavy craft. Before the bastion of Trinidad is finally equipped, 10,000 laborers, native and American, white and negro, will have received employment from the U.S. The Navy expects its establishment to be finished Jan. 1. The Army estimates that by fall its jungle tracts will be cleared and that 18 months from now its base in the interior will be ready for occupancy by the 15,000 soldiers appointed to guard America’s great new fortress of the south.
The American Era of Trinidad & Tobago
Collection of photos found in a WWII service photo album.
Photos Courtesy Scott Henderson
Whitehall After
World War 2
After the withdrawal of the American soldiers in 1944, the Henderson family never returned to live in White Hall. Instead the British Council rented and occupied the mansion as a cultural center. There were numerous organisations that also occupied the space, these included the Trinidad Central Library, the Regional Library, the National Archives, the Government Broadcasting Unit, the Trinidad Art Society and the Cellar Club.
The government of Trinidad and Tobago purchased White Hall on October 7th, 1954 for $123,000 when the British Council did not renewed their lease. Then in 1957 the Pre-Federal Interim Government prior to the establishment of the West Indies Federation had their headquarters in the building.
A year after Trinidad and Tobago gained its independence from the Britain in 1962, White Hall was to become the Office of Trinidad and Tobago’s first Prime Minister; the Hon. Dr. Eric Williams. It remained the Office of the Prime Minister until 2009 when the new office at 13–15 St Clair Avenue, Port of Spain was completed.
White Hall has remained vacant ever since and the structure has deteriorated rapidly due to the lack of maintenance. It’s last complete restoration was in 2000 and it was done under the developer Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (Udecott).
It is in dire need of another restoration work as the left side of the first floor is collapsing and is now being supported by metal beams. The former stables, coach-house and servants’ quarters located behind White Hall are in conspicuous neglect with fallen windows, flaking wall paint and an assortment of items left abandoned, including the ruins of the Prime Minister’s signage that once hung on the facade of the building. It is disconcerting to wonder about the conditions of the interior of the main structure and one can only hope that the building will not collapse on itself.
References
Maclean, Geoffrey. The Built Heritage of Trinidad and Tobago. Port of Spain: The National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago, 2012. Book.
Mavrogordato, Olga. Voices in the Street. Port of Spain: Inprint Caribbean Limited, 1977. Book.
de Verteuil, Anthony. The Great Eight. Port of Spain: The Litho Press, 2015. Book.
Anthony, Michael. Port of Spain in a World at War 1939–1945. Cascade” Paria Publishing Company Limited, 2008. Book.
