BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THIS media house has embarked on a new project. This project is of an educational nature aimed at taking the older folks back into time and sensitising the younger generation by pictures on historical sites, buildings and other structures of importance in St. Kitts and Nevis.
This will be a weekly feature depicting what those structures looked like in the past compared with the present.
However, after viewing the pictures and reading the details, visitors to this site can share their comments and are asked to contribute pictures they may have taken in the past of structures that are still in existence, even though renovated, replaced or renamed but are still on the original place of construction.
We start this week with the Old Treasury Pier which has been transformed into a part of the Port Zante facility that houses a variety of shopping areas and other forms of trade to accommodate visitors to St. Kitts, especially those who arrive aboard cruise ships.
The Old Treasury Pier was built in the mid-1940s and was the main pier for travel between St. Kitts and Nevis.
It was also used annually for the island’s Aquatic Sporting event which drew large crowds from both islands.
Some of the people who shared their experience with this publication remember bravely diving off the pier, swimming and riding the high and rough waves in the Caribbean Sea; while a few of them remember doing so to prove to their friends and onlookers that they were among the best swimmers on the island.
One individual said that he remembers, as a lad, when the older boys would throw others off the pier into the sea once they were brave enough to venture onto it.
A woman, who gave her name as Angela, said she remembers when women visited the pier wearing high-heeled shoes, they had to remove them for fear of falling down by having the heels stuck between the many visible slots.
The land upon which Port Zante stands was reclaimed from the Caribbean Sea under the People’s Action Movement government and developed into a hub of activities by the current St. Kitts and Nevis Labour Party administration.
Today, the Old Treasury Pier has vanished, all in the name of development to generate much needed funds, especially since the country’s main economic source is Tourism since the closure of the Sugar Industry.
