House of Culture makeover coming along nicely
Since February of this year, humming sanders, banging hammers and whistling construction workers have dominated the grounds of the House of the Culture in Belize City. Their combined presence has paid off as today, the stately elegance that once characterized the mansion is starting to creep out from under the sawdust and cobwebs. Earlier this week, News 5’s Jacqueline Woods visited the site for a tour of the work in progress.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
For the past six months construction crews have been hard at work at the Government House in Belize City, painstakingly restoring the dilapidated building to its former splendour.
According to Coordinator of the House of Culture, Lita Krohn, the plan is to renovate the structure to resemble its original architecture.
Lita Krohn, Coordinator, House of Culture
“If there were rotten pieces, those were replaced, there’s no redesigning, we are using the authentic design. People will notice that the little round part is not there, but that was placed in the 1905s and Sir Andie was the person that did it. We’re going back to the straight lines of the original building, which was verandas all around.”
Krohn says there are elaborate plans for the historical house, including improvements to the grounds and a gallery for contemporary art.
Lita Krohn
“And this will be the historical section where colonial history will take place. We’ll have the portraits of the Governors, some of the old silverware, some of the old glassware, some of the plate ware. But also other things in art history, it wasn’t just colonial things happening at that time, it’s also going to be like Belizean history coming alive here.”
“There won’t be any exhibitions upstairs. That room we’re seeing right now will be a conference room. These will be like music and art rooms, accessible to the students, but not like just traipsing all over the place.”
“This will be a beautiful hall for small concerts. It can probably fit about fifty comfortably, once they put a stage over that side. There was a problem with that material, it’s thin, it leaked from the room during various hurricanes, so that part is just going to have to be replaced, there’s just no way around that.”
“What has been added, a teeny tiny swimming pool was there. In Belize we would have called it “dip foot” because only your foot could fit in there. We used that foundation to build some proper, very lovely bathrooms to serve the public once the place is rented. There are also bathrooms on the grounds for the grounds, but this is for when the place is rented, these are new bathrooms.”
But while the changes to the House of Culture will make it much more attractive, Krohn hopes attitude adjustments will follow suit.
Lita Krohn
“Everywhere you look, you see the beautiful Caribbean Sea. We used to call this our video room, but we’ll have conferences. We can also have videos in here for the children and what have you. The important thing is that we want people to know that come September, it’s open once more to the public for them to call us. This is our house.”
“We want it to be shared by the people, but people have to also care for it and be clean, be respectful of the grounds and all the basic things.”
The House of Culture project should be completed, and opened to the public, by September. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
Offices for the House of Culture staff, as well as the Institute of Social Cultural Research, an offshoot of the National Institute of History, will also be housed in the building.
