Trestrail House

The Trestrail House

The Trestrail House- Royal Road, San Fernando

This structure built on Royal Road, San Fernando is hidden in the bustling movements of the San Fernando city lies a treasure lost to those consumed by their lives. This grand structure was built by Laurie Trestrail and is now the oldest wooden building in San Fernando. In its glory day, the Trestrail House, a sugar plantation house, accommodated ladies and lads of the highest classes during the colonial era. At the perfect location it looks over the city, nestled amongst the more typical urban buildings, the house was so strategically placed that upon the balcony one can see the skyline of San Fernando. She’s an old grand matriarch that looks upon the city constantly metamorphosing, becoming more in with the times. Unlike keeping to the urban fad, this majestic building though, underwent much reconstructive work to ‘get with’ the times or realistically speaking, meeting the city’s law requirements. However, it has managed to maintain its imperial appeal. The current owner refers to the house as the ‘Grand Old Lady’ with walls aged over 125 years. The Trestrail house is now used as a school for children with learning disabilities. 

This building is simply one of the many reminders of the colonial legacies in Trinidad. Some may wonder what colonial legacy has to do with urban geography. Consider this, Griffin and Ford, 1983, formed the Latin American City Model. According to Urban Geography: A Global Perspective, Griffin and Ford (1983) stated that the Latin American region shared a common colonial legacy and unlike many other regions, many of the Latin American cities share a similar structure. Therefore, through that control which the colonial powers had, urban areas were structured to suit. Buildings such as the Trestrail House are gentle reminders of colonial legacies’ role in urban Geography. Architectural information on this building was not found however, the link below will take you to a newspaper article that mentioned the Trestrail house.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/A_Date_to_remember.html

References:

Pacione, Michael. 2009. "Urban geography: A global perspective."  Routledge.