Ellerslie Park

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Ellerslie Park
district of Port of Spain
Coordinates 10 ° 40 ′ 40 ″  N , 61 ° 31 ′ 30 ″  W Coordinates: 10 ° 40 ′ 40 ″  N , 61 ° 31 ′ 30 ″  W
Residents 277 (2011)

Ellerslie Park is a community in the Caribbean island state of Trinidad and Tobago and a district of the capital Port of Spain .

status

The smallest administrative unit in Trinidad and Tobago is the community, comparable to the German local situation . A community can only comprise a few streets in urban areas, but also large areas in rural areas. Trinidad and Tobago is administratively divided into 612 communities, Ellerslie Park is one of them. The term “district” in Trinidad and Tobago only has an informal meaning.

location

Ellerslie Park is located in the northwest Port of Spains, on the border between the major districts of Saint James and Maraval . Ellerslie Park is bounded to the east by Saddle Road and to the north by Long Circular Road. It is bordered by the Long Circular community to the west and Federation Park to the south. Ellerslie Park is formally located on the territory of three administrative regions of Trinidad, namely the region-free city of Port of Spain and the regions of Diego Martin and San Juan-Laventille . The community is managed exclusively from Port of Spain.

history

The area of ​​today's Ellerslie Park belonged towards the end of the 19th century to the Swiss family Zurcher, who migrated to Trinidad around 1850 and who called their mansion and the surrounding area "Blarney". Around 1900 the property was bought by the English-born Rapsey family, who owned food factories and plantations in Trinidad, and renamed "Ellerslie". The name "Ellerslie" comes from Old English and means "field of elder trees" or "field of elder bushes". The reason for the naming of the area by the Rapsey family is unknown. Elderberries don't grow in Trinidad, but they do in the family's English homeland.

From 1939 to 1943 there was an internment camp for Germans who were detained as opponents of the Trinidadian colonial power Great Britain in the area of ​​today's Ellerslie Park. Ironically, this only affected a few German soldiers (mostly captured submarine crews) or members of the merchant navy , but primarily the almost 600 Jews of German origin who had fled to Trinidad from the Nazi regime. From 1955 the area was used for civilian purposes again when the office of the British High Commissioner bought property 1 Ellerslie Park and had the British Trade Commissioner's home built there.

Ellerslie Park 1967

In the 1960s, Ellerslie Park briefly hit national headlines when a cultural center for the Islamic Missionaries Guild (IMG) was to be built on its western edge - immediately adjacent to the residence of the US ambassador, who immediately intervened with the Trinidadian government. The latter granted the request and offered IMG an alternative plot of land in the Mucurapo district to the south-west.

In 1976 the Trinidadian writer Marion Patrick Jones set a monument to the district whose elegant villas in her novel J'Ouvert Morning represent the life goal of the lower-middle-class protagonist family Grant.

Economy and Transport

Ellerslie Park is an upper class residential neighborhood; many diplomats and senior civil servants live there. In the southeast of the community is Ellerslie Plaza, a large shopping center with restaurants and boutiques. The Trinidadian branch of China Railway Construction , a state-owned Chinese railway company, has its headquarters in the district - Trinidad has had no railway network since 1968.

Ellerslie Park is connected to the center of Port of Spains with the St. Clair district and Queen's Park Savannah as well as to the North Coast Road leading to the north coast of Trinidad via Saddle Road . All tourist traffic between Port of Spain and the beaches on the north coast passes Ellerslie Park. The Saint James district is accessed via Long Circular Road.

Facilities

The Catholic Church of the Assumption, which serves the northern district of Maraval, is on the territory of the community. The building designed by Anthony C. Lewis in 1948 is considered an example of modern Trinidadian architecture.

Personalities

Former Prime Minister and President of Trinidad ANR Robinson lived in Ellerslie Park until his death.

Individual evidence

  1. RDLG.gov.tt: Map of Port of Spain. Archived from the original on December 27, 2017 ; Retrieved December 26, 2017 . (Ministry of Rural Development & Local Government, PDF, 8.1 MB)
  2. Anthony de Verteuil : The Germans in Trinidad . 1994, ISBN 978-976-8136-39-8 , pp. 16 .
  3. Angelo Bissessarsingh: John Rapsey — creator of hops bread and biscuit cake . In: Trinidad Guardian . November 18, 2012. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
  4. RampantScotland.com: Scottish Place Names - Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. Retrieved December 21, 2017 .
  5. IAJGS Jewish Cemetery Project: Trinidad and Tobago - The Jewish community. Retrieved December 21, 2017 .
  6. RoomForDiplomacy.com: Trinidad and Tobago: Port of Spain. Retrieved December 21, 2017 .
  7. Daurius Figueira: Jihad in Trinidad and Tobago, July 27, 1990 . iUniverse , Bloomington 2002, ISBN 0-595-22834-8 , pp. 56 .
  8. ^ CitizensForConservationTT.org: Church of the Assumption. Archived from the original on December 27, 2017 ; Retrieved December 26, 2017 .