| Government House | |
|---|---|
 Government House in September 2015 | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Type | Official residence |
| Location | Duke Street, Nassau, Bahamas |
| Coordinates | 25°04′33″N 77°20′40″W / 25.075789°N 77.344549°W |
| Construction started | 1803 |
| Completed | 1806 |
| Renovated | 1909; 1929–30; 1940s |
| Client | Governor-General of the Bahamas |
| Website | |
| www | |
Government House is the official residence of the governor-general of the Bahamas, located in Nassau. It was built in the colonial days and was the residence of the governor of the Bahamas. It later continued in the role of official residence and office of the governor-general following political independence from the United Kingdom in 1973.
Built on a hill known as Mount Fitzwilliam and completed in 1806, this imposing stuccoed-coral-rock building on Duke Street is the Bahamian archipelago's foremost example of Georgian Colonial architecture.[1] In 1814, Colonel Don Antonio de Alcedo, a Spanish scholar and soldier, wrote admiringly of its effect.[2] The Oriental Herald, in 1825, stated: "The new Government-House, standing on the centre of the ridge that overlooks the town, was built by a sum voted by the House of Assembly from the funds of the Treasury and cost upwards of 20,000l. It is built in the European style of architecture, and is universally considered the best building of the kind throughout the West Indies".[3]
The building's original neoclassical aspect, as well as its stone construction, was directly influenced by the arrival of Loyalists from the southern United States in the 1780s. Previously most Bahamian buildings had been built of painted wood.[4] Typically Bahamian elements, however, include louvred wood shutters and brightly painted exterior, in this case a brilliant shade of conch-pink. The primary façade, centred on a pedimented entrance supported by four stout Ionic columns, dates from the 1930s, when the building was remodelled following the hurricane of 1929.
- ^ Andrew Gerald Gravette, Architectural heritage of the Caribbean: an A-Z of Historic Buildings (Signal Books, 2000), page 89
- ^ Antonio de Alcedo, The Geographical and Historical Dictionary of America and the West Indies (J. Carpenter, 1814), page 222
- ^ "Description of Nassau", The Oriental Herald and Journal of General Literature (1825), Volume 7, page 266
- ^ Donald M. McCartney, Bahamian Culture and Factors Which Impact Upon It (Dorrance Publishing, 2004), page 4