JNHT signals intention to declare seven national monuments at UTech

THE UNIVERSITY of Technology (UTech), Jamaica is reporting that the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) has signalled its intention to recognise seven buildings on its Papine campus to be declared national monuments.

The buildings that will receive this status, if formally approved, are the University Chapel, the Drawing Room, Bryan’s Book Store, the Victoria Mutual Facility, the Cynthia Shako Early Childhood Educational Centre, The Centre for the Arts, and the Students’ Activity Centre at the Barn.

Under the JNHT Act, the Trust may declare a site to be a national monument if its preservation is a matter of public interest owing to its historic, architectural, traditional, artistic, aesthetic, scientific, or architectural value.

Commenting on the JNHT initiative, UTech President Professor Stephen Vasciannie noted the importance of preserving the country’s national heritage.

“The buildings mentioned are not only of historical value. They are beautiful, quaint structures that border, for the most part, on the university’s popular and revived Caribbean Sculpture Park. We are proud to be custodians of the heritage of the old Jamaica Farm School and other antecedents.”

Much of the research to support the declaration of the buildings as national monuments was undertaken by the university’s Museum and Heritage Preservation Officer Joan Francis.

Vasciannie also thanked predecessors Ambassador Burchell Whiteman and Professor Errol Morrison, as well as Francis and others, for leading the effort to have the national monuments recognised.

PHOTO BY AMITABH SHARMA Inside the Caribbean Sculpture Park at UTech, which is bordered by most of the seven buildings to be declared national monuments.