March 2010


Issue Home >>

Construction began in mid-1923, and was well advanced when the foundation stone was laid on January 14, 1924, by the governor of the day. By then the College’s name had been changed to ICTA, the name on the stone, along with its motto: Via colendi haud facilis (the way of farming is not easy), a quotation from Virgil. The new building was occupied during the first term of the 1925/26 academic year and formally opened early in 1926. The Principal’s and Registrar’s offices, the library, and several departments, with classrooms and laboratories, were transferred to it. The second Principal, H.Martin Leake, was very dissatisfied with the state of the building and its workmanship and fittings. I’ve examined a bulky file in the Library which is stuffed with letters and memoranda of complaints from him, and the rather defensive replies from the architect’s representative in Trinidad. The more things change…Nevertheless it was, indeed, a ‘dignified’ structure which immediately became the College’s flagship building commanding the whole ‘St Augustine Savannah’. People referred to its ‘massive proportions’ and described it as a ‘stately’ and ‘inspiring’ building.

For the whole of ICTA’s existence—up to 1960—the building was the centre of its operations, housing the library on the top floor, administration offices including the Principal’s, laboratories and classrooms. It was used for a more sinister purpose during the Butler Riots of 1937: Principal Evans recruited staff and students (mainly the British postgraduates) as a volunteer force to help keep the peace and prevent unrest spreading to the campus area, and an ‘armory’ was set up on the ground floor of the building. Evans personally drilled his ‘troops’ and trained them in the use of rifles in front of the building (not a role one can see more recent Principals undertaking!). During World War II, the space in front was again used for drilling and training of volunteer troops for home defence.

Not long before the merger with UCWI, the building was renovated, cleaned and repainted ‘a delicate mist green, set off by the narrow edges of the red tiles,’ the teak jalousies and the dark green window frames, so that it was ‘one of the most attractive buildings in Trinidad,’ according to the Principal’s Report for 1954/55, taking on the appearance it would keep for several decades, an appearance recalled during the campus debate on the recent renovations and repainting of 2009.

With the merger between ICTA and UCWI in 1960—the event whose 50th anniversary we are celebrating this year—the Admin Building, as it became known, continued to serve as the heart of the new campus (of UWI from 1962 when the University became independent). By then there were no classrooms or laboratories in it. It was occupied by the campus Library, the Principal, and the staff of the Registry and Bursary; upstairs was the main conference room where Academic Board and similar meetings were held until very recently.

As the campus expanded in the 1960s, with the College of Arts & Sciences as well as Agriculture and Engineering, the Library expanded too, under the leadership of Alma Jordan. Such was the pressure on the Library, trying desperately to cater for the ever increasing number of staff, students and courses, that at one point (1967-69) it occupied virtually the entire building. The Principal, Registrar and most of their staff were evicted—they were housed in the building now occupied by CITS. Fortunately, by 1969 the new library in the JFK Complex was ready for occupation; the Library moved out in the long vacation of that year, and the Principal and Registrar moved back in. From 1969 on, the Admin Building housed the offices of the Principal, Registrar and Bursar, and their respective staffs.

Because of its central location, and because it housed the Principal’s office, the Admin Building became the focus of student and staff protests and demonstrations, especially during the turbulent period between the late 1960s and the early 1980s. Many marches and demos focused on the building and its environs. In 1980, Principal Braithwaite was ‘besieged’ in his office by a large crowd of students, some of whom threw files and furniture around. The riot police were called in to restore order. (Characteristically, Braithwaite later said that his main concern had been the risk of students suffocating—there were about 70 people in a fairly small office). In the 1960s, too, graduation and other big ceremonies were held in front of the building, before they were moved to the JFK Quadrangle.

In 1996, the Principal and his immediate staff moved out of Admin—where Principals had been based ever since 1925—to the refurbished Principal’s Residence. Of course, the rapid expansion of the campus meant that Bursary and Registry staff were also expanding steadily, and the building became increasingly overcrowded, and indeed, run down in its internal appearance and arrangements. Relief was at hand: the opening of the new Student Administration Building saw the relocation of the Registry and Bursary staff who dealt directly with the student body. The opportunity was taken to give the old building a thorough internal remodeling, external extension, and repainting of the façade.

Ladies & gentlemen, we have been right to cherish this grand old lady, our flagship building and our historical heart. May we all be around to celebrate her centenary in 2025.

Professor of History, Bridget Brereton’s book, From Imperial College to University of the West Indies: A History of the St Augustine Campus, Trinidad & Tobago, will be launched in October as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the St. Augustine Campus. This was her presentation at the rededication ceremony for the Administration Building on March 12, 2010.