Plans scrapped for Queen to stay at Stollmeyer’s Castle
The Government has scrapped ambitious plans to accommodate Queen Elizabeth 11 at Stollmeyer’s Castle which is a replica of a wing of her Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
Its secret, fancy plans were to restore the decrepit building in time for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) here which she will attend as head of the Commonwealth, in late November.
There were multi-million plans to restore the neglected woebegone building – one of the Magnificent Seven on Maraval Road with luxurious furnishings that befit a monarch.
The controversial Special Purpose Company, the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago UDeCOTT to handle the restoration project which was scheduled to start in January 2008- 15 months ago.
The firm of architects, De Four Farmer and Associates of Stanmore Avenue, Port of Spain were hired for the infrastructural works in the castle with Genivar as the contractors.
The Tntinsider understands that the Government has dragged its feet on the project waiting for Prime Minister Patrick Manning to move out of his office next door at Whitehall.
“There were security considerations. You could not have construction taking place next door to the Prime Minister’s office,” a well-placed source explained.
The source felt, however, that things could have been fast tracked.
The project has not been abandoned: the Queen will simply stay somewhere else. Perhaps, at the Hilton Trinidad or at the Five-Star Hyatt Hotel.
The source said that the paper work is being sorted out and UDeCOTT is waiting on the go-ahead from cabinet, to start the project.
“I am sure that the project will start soon”, the source concluded.
Manning’s blue-eye boy UDeCOTT chairman Calder Hart, who has been attending the Uff Commission of Enquiry into the construction industry, was unavailable for comment.
However, Corporate Communications Manager Roxanne Stapleton-Whyms promised the Tntinsider a response but, despite repeated requests, was unable to do so up to press-time, pleading pressure of work.
Some 54 Commonwealth leaders will attend the conference. Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, will not be one of them since his country was suspended from the Commonwealth in 2003.
Stollmeyer’s Castle, also known as Killarney, was built in 1904 by Charles Fournier Stollmeyer for his wife.
It was designed by Spanish architect Robert Gillies and patterned after Balmoral Castle, the royal retreat in Scotland.
Mrs Stollmeyer never moved into the house because she found it was too elaborate and gave it to their son, Conrad who was about to be married.
In 1940, the building was used by American forces.
After the death of Mrs Conrad Stollmeyer in 1969 (her husband died four years earlier), the house was passed on to her only son, Dr John Stollmeyer.
He sold it in March 1972 to insurance executive Jesse Henry Mahabir for $215,000 – a large sum in those days.
And Mahabir proved that he was an astute businessman because when, in 1996, the Government acquired the building, which is the last of the Magnificent Seven, he received $2 million.
Editor’s note: update corrects the Government’s acquisition date in the last paragraph.