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The Magnificent Seven

Tuesday, 30 March 2010 00:00
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The seven years, 1903–1909, were truly great years for Trinidad, and their magnificent expression is to be found in the seven beautiful buildings situated immediately to the west of the Queen’s Park Savannah on land of the former St. Clair sugar estate.

By 1904, Queen’s Royal College was erected and on the remaining six lots, mansions of a type never before seen in Trinidad began to rise. They were the talk of the town. Known today as “The Magnificent Seven” they are well set in a superb relationship to the Savannah and can be examined from all angles. Larger than life, bold and daring, they sing out the individualism characteristic of the country.

These are all European styled mansions that represent some of the finest surviving European architecture anywhere. They do deserve the title magnificent, though some are becoming more run down. All but one was built in 1904.

Going northwards along the Savannah are:

  1. Queen's Royal College, a German renaissance design.
  2. Hayes Court, residence of the Anglican bishop, built in 1910.
  3. Ambard's House or Roomor, built in the French Baroque style with marble imported from Italy .
  4. "Mille Fleurs" or Prada's House, a town house typical of the turn-of-the-century with impressive iron fretwork.
  5. Archbishop's Palace, the Roman Catholic archbishop's home built in 1904.
  6. White Hall, the opulent Moorish-style mansion that is the Prime Minister's office.
  7. Stollmeyer's Castle or Killarney, a brick and turreted residence named by and after the family who built this miniature Rhine castle.

They are best photographed in the early morning sun before the area becomes crowded.

In 1988 the Magnificent Seven buildings at Queen's Park West were listed by the Organisation of American States as a historic district on the Register of Monuments of the Greater Caribbean.