Complex Building renamed after Charles Bartlett Hyde

It is known to many as the Complex Building, but today the government’s Administration Building located on Mahogany Street, was renamed the Charles Bartlett Hyde Building. Family members and various public service officers all gathered to honour Hyde for his extensive work as former public officer, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Commissioner of the Supreme Court. Hyde grew up at number one East Canal and is known to many as C.B. He was born on June twenty-third, 1923 and according to friends and family, it is a fitting tribute. Hyde spoke of his humble origins.

Charles Bartlett Hyde, Honouree
“I was born in a small house on the canal side. It was built of virgin pine covered by shingles and is still standing after being battered by two major hurricanes; the nameless one of 1931 and Hattie which struck in 1961, thirty years after. The house stands as a testament to the quality of the builders of olden times.”

Paul Rodriguez, Ombudsman
“C.B. has been, through his whole adult life, a man of many parts, an avid athlete of known mean skills. He competed against the best in football, cricket, basketball and tennis. He was the holder of the record for the running long-jump in Belize for twenty years. And this is why and how I believe C.B. Hyde is great but now controversial. He has cultivated perhaps the greatest of human skills, which is to be able to disagree without being disagreeable.”

The building was inaugurated in 1995 and houses the Elections and Boundaries, Income Tax, Immigration and GST Departments.