GREENWOOD GREAT HOUSE still authentic and awesome – Part II
IN PART one we wrote about the history and evolution of the great house at Greenwood in St James.
We also looked at the building itself and the other historic structures perched on a hill overlooking the azure Caribbean Sea. We ended by asking, “So, what lies within its ancient embrace?”
It will take many more than two parts to adequately describe the plethora of fascinating objects in this edifice built by enslaved Africans and occupied by the landed gentry. There is no doubt about the high quality of life that the occupants enjoyed. Great house apart, the pieces, some custom-made and emblazoned with family crests, betrayed their social status.
The bedrooms, all four of them, are furnished with the finest pieces of their eras. And they are not just there for their utility; they are handcrafted works of art. Talk about sleeping in the lap of luxury. The original beds of the Barretts, who owned the house, are in the pink room, which also has a wooden crib. Who once occupied and cried in it? On the floor is a 100per-cent silk rug.
OTHER LEISURE AREAS
There are other leisure areas, such as the salon, that are also exquisitely furnished. The Victorian love seat, in which many a romance bloomed is right across from the lounge chair in which the chaperone waited while courting took place. And it seems like an English court jester was joking around in the house. His chair is also still there.
The entire house is furnished with statement pieces mainly from the 18th century. There is no one piece de resistance. Each object has an essence of its own, and an accent that is beyond compare. Desks with secret compartments can tell stories of what was written upon them, especially the love letters. The stylish barber’s chair, it is said, might still be holding the DNA of some who had sat within.
China and other wares are resting all over the place, longing to be used. They are fine pieces in an incredible state of preservation, some of them more than 200 years old. There are Wedgewood pieces
made for the Barretts, a bronze Chinese punchbowl, a Japanese platter, and the last pieces of china with the Barretts family crest.
And since the house was built to host and entertain the Barretts’ guests, entertainment facilities and many musical instruments were provided. Two of the more intriguing pieces are the Polyphones that still play music from huge metal discs riddled with holes. They look like precursors to LP discs.
There is also a piano belonging to King Edward VII, an 1862 harp, a coin-operated organ (now operated by hand), and a reed organ, and a table for card games. Some other items of note are huge Spanish jars, an amazing chandelier, a 200-yearold Spanish trunk, a metal linen press, a machine to calculate working hours, busts of famous world personalities, and a floor made of marble taken from Serge Island in St Thomas.
Aside from the books, Greenwood Great House is the keeper of many revealing and thought-provoking printed documents, such as the last will and testament of Reverend Thomas Burchell, Baptist abolitionist. There are also letters, newspaper advertisement, etc.
The walls are graced by ghosts from the past, photographs and paintings of people from a time long gone. Some had slept within. And there is actually a ‘Duppy Corner’. It consists of a painting of two women staring at a ghost-like figure, and a photograph of an African maid standing behind her employers. It is said the woman had died years before the picture was taken.
There are bottles of various shapes and sizes used for a variety of purposes, and instruments that were used to punish the enslaved. The ‘mantrap’, a very cumbersome and heavy metal object with teeth that clamp lower limbs, is not easy to look at, nor is the whip.
Greenwood Great House offers more than a glimpse into the past. It is an eyeful. This time capsule makes you reflect on the lifestyles of yesteryear.