Author : Angelo Bissessarsingh
In 1899 the Government Stock Farm at St. Clair Estate moved to St. Joseph and the lands were laid out In streets and avenues ready for the construction of some of the finest homes on the island for its richest and most powerful people. Several lots were laid out in Queen’s Park West around the Savannah and became the most desirable real estate in the colony and available for lease at a peppercorn rent for 199 years.
The Archbishops of both the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches sited their mansions here as did the fabulously wealthy C.C Stollmeyer. The architecture was diverse, extravagant and stunning. Among those who leased lots was Lucien Francois Ambard. Lucien was the nephew of Andre Ambard who in his time was one of the wealthiest French Creoles on the island, owning many cocoa estates and a huge cocoa exporting firm which had holdings as far away as Venezuela. It was in Venezuela that Lucien resided until 1875 (when he returned to Trinidad to work for his uncle’s firm who died in 1870) .
The Ambard holdings were then in the hands of Andre’s son-in-law, Leon Agostini (who built the mansion known as Whitehall in Queen’s Park West). Whatever the case, LF Ambard became a partner in the company and thus a very rich man. In order to construct a residence worthy of his wealth, Lucien leased land and began in 1903, the construction of an ornate Baroque mansion in the French chateau style. Heavy use was made of elegant cast iron which formed the balcony railings and adorned the cupolas as well as lower floors where long iron pillars supported the roof. Wood for rafters, floorboard and panelling came from La Union and Santa Isabella estates in Erin which were Ambard’s.
The grounds were landscaped and included outhouses at the rear for servants and a kitchen as well as a garage. Like many French Creoles of the period, LF Ambard mortgaged his property and business heavily to William Gordon Gordon of Gordon Grant and Co. French Creole clans lived lavish lifestyles, paid for with borrowed money and did not believe in reinvesting in their estates.
They insisted on dining on roasts of Lappe and salmi of morocoy liver, washed down with fine French Bordeaux wine. They kept open houses every evening and frequent dinner parties. Most maintained fine townhouses in Port of Spain for the children who were educated in the city. The children were often sent to boarding schools in France and England at great cost. Most did not return until their late 20s, having left at age 7 or 8. They were often educated in the arts, had no proclivity for hard work, and were accustomed to the life of a professional student. Upon return to Trinidad, many came back to find the family on the rocks. The children upon return were aliens to Trinidad, and finding no other recourse, ventured into managing cocoa estates for which training in rhetoric, syntax and fencing had not prepared them. One writer of the period described how they were often swindled by peon drivers and overseers whom they found indispensable, having no knowledge themselves about the work.
Since the lifestyles of the French Creoles were largely funded with credit from Gordon Grant and Co. , estates were foreclosed upon with terrible efficiency. Gordon became known to the French Creole community as The Bloodsucker.
Gordon sold it in escrow to businessman Poyntz McKenzie in 1918 who himself went belly up on payments upon his becoming bankrupt in 1923. It was then rented to cinema pioneer William P. Humphrey at $70 per month which was a good deal in the 1920s.
In 1940, the place was acquired by Timothy Roodal. Born in 1890 to cane-cutter parents, he rose from being a shopkeeper to a speculator in the early oilfields near Fyzabad where he made a fortune. Roodal was also one of the early cinema pioneers opening the Palace Cinema which was the first in San Fernando and having a chain of theatres including his crown jewel, the Deluxe (now Zen nightclub) in Port of Spain which was opened by the Duke himself, John Wayne. Roodal was also a former mayor of San Fernando (where he is remembered in the name of the cemetery on Broadway) and a Member of the Legislative Council. Roodal died in 1952 but the house is still in his family.
The house is alternatively called Roomor (Roodal-Morgan) or Ambard’s House. It has the distinction of being the only private residence in the lineup of historical buildings known as the Magnificent 7.
Images courtesy of Angelo Bissessarsingh Virtual Museum of Trinidad and Tobago
Roomor 