REFLECTIONS ON
“OVER-THE-HILL”
By
ORVILLE A. TURNQUEST
(A Grant’s Town Boy from “Ova da Hill”)
*******
The story of “Over the Hill” is the story of
the history of a proud and aspiring people.
It is the story of freed slaves from West Africa who settled in a new
land across the Atlantic Ocean. It is
a story of the preservation of many aspects of an ancient culture, and the
acquisition of modern skills, and quality education, in order to achieve
success in a new land. It is a story of
an entire area in the centre of this Island which was a distinct Settlement known
as Grant’s Town, and which was once the mecca of future leaders, builders,
educators, politicians, business and professional people, as well as ordinary
artisans and workers, all of whom lived there and developed a fine record of
black families and developing neighbourhoods.
But that reputation has changed in recent
decades, as “Over the Hill” is, sadly, fast becoming a symbol of the
deterioration of those same neighbourhoods “Over the Hill”. And so it is
important that we do not forget from whence we came. It is also important that as
we recall where we have come from we should reflect from time to time on who we
are.
The Nassau Guardian, one of our two daily
Newspapers, was founded in 1844; and 5 years ago, in the year 2004 when that
Newspaper celebrated its 160th Anniversary, I was invited to comment
on the organizational history of that Newspaper, which had operated in the down-town
City area since 1844, but moved to its present location “Over the Hill” some 45
years ago. I stated at that time that
when the Newspaper was founded by Edwin Moseley in 1844, only about one-quarter
of the Island’s total population could read and write – and the very large
majority of them were from the white community, comprising the more privileged
and economically elite white residents, who lived and worked and socialized in
the Town of Nassau. Indeed, it was only
a decade earlier that these white residents of Nassau had been legally deprived
of their right to own slaves, with the coming into effect of the Emancipation
Act of 1834. These white folk never came
“Over the Hill” - or, at most, hardly ever; and they were, for the most part,
the employers of the “ova-da-hill” crowd, who therefore remained generally
docile and subservient to the folks uptown.
And so it was in those early days that if you
lived or hailed from an area like Grant’s Town “ova-da-hill”, you were not only
a black or coloured person but also underprivileged, and attached with an
automatic badge of social inferiority and subservience. Hence, one frequently was dismissed with the
assessed and rhetorical condemnation, adapted from the age-old biblical
question, “Can any good thing come out of Grant’s Town?”
Geographically, in 1844 when The Guardian was
first published, specific areas of New Providence were identified by their
districts and separate settlements, each with its own boundaries, its special
indigenous features, its particular segment of the population, and its
historical origins. The Guardian, like
all other business establishments of the day, was then located to the North of
the hill range that formed a ridge parallel to the Harbour of Nassau, providing
a natural southern and protective boundary to the area of land which then
comprised the Town. Indeed, a section
of this hill range was the
site of Government House, the official
residence of the Governor, bearing the rather pretentious title of Mount
Fitzwilliam.
All official buildings – starting with
Government House, as well as the City’s only bank at the time, all the
government offices, the commercial shops, professional offices, the electrical
power plant and public works department – all were located north of the hill. Any
enterprising resident of “ova-da-hill”, with a flair for trading or
artisanship, who decided to go into business for himself, and established his
work-place in his neighbourhood, had to contend with being designated by his
peers and potential customers as having merely a “petty shop”.
As a proud product of Grant’s Town, where I
was born and lived until marriage, my earliest recollections go back to the
mid-1930s, and many of the residents “ova-da-hill” were by then generally
literate – even if not well-read. There
were still only three or four primary schools in the entire area, and all but
one of these were then operated by Churches.
Woodcock School (which later became Western Preparatory #2) in Hospital
Lane south, and St. Agnes “Copper-bread” School at Market and Lewis Streets,
were both operated by the Anglicans; and Our Lady’s School further south on
Young Street was operated by the Roman Catholic Church, which also catered to
children from “ova-da-hill” at its other day school on the grounds of St.
Francis on West and Delancy Streets.
The only public school “ova-da-hill” operated by the Government was the
Quarry Mission School – Western Preparatory - on Nassau Street. The two other Government Schools which
accommodated children from “ova-da-hill”, were “Smith’s School (or Western
Junior) and “Central School” (or Western Senior, as a successor to the “Boys
Central School”).
Apart from being the business and civic hub
of the Island, the Town of Nassau was also the residential area of the white
and mulatto population, as well as a middle-class minority comprising the
racially mixed and most of the then affluent coloured population. As the population grew, these city dwellers
correspondingly extended their residences eastwards and westwards from the City
limits, along or near the northern waterfront of the Island, but never
southwards over the hill ridge…. no, never “ova-da-hill”.
The several distinct and clearly defined
neighbourhoods of the mass of the black population also expanded, as their
numbers increased, into areas outside the original “ova-da-hill” neighbourhoods
into what became known as the new subdivisions.
In my boyhood days the different townships of the Island were Grant’s
Town, Bain Town, Englerston, Contabuta, Delancey Town, Chippingham, Mason’s
Addition, Fort Fincastle, Freetown, the Pond, the White Ground, Poitier’s, Okra
Hill, Kemp Road, See-me-no-more, Congo
Town, Fox Hill, Sandilands Village, Headquarters (or Carmichael), Gambier,
Delaporte and Adelaide Village.
All the well-known, newer, subdivisions of
today were later developments of the 1940s and ‘50s …..such as Coconut Grove,
Shirley Heights, Culmersville, Sears Addition, Centreville, Westward Villas,
Greater Chippingham, Sea Breeze Estates, Pinedale, Nassau Village and Pinewood
Gardens. Of the many villages,
settlements and towns, those concentrated in the central section of the Island,
south of the ridge on which Mount Fitzwilliam was located, collectively
comprised the geographical area known and always referred to as “ova-da-hill”. So that “ova-da-hill” was a geographic description
-- but it was also a culture, a concept, an identity, a heritage, and a way of
life.
“Ova-da-hill” was the area to which the
majority of the population returned at the end of their work day, to their
homes and their recreation. It was the
location of their Churches, their bars and rum shops (or “bar-rooms” as they
were called), their petty shops, their lodge halls and, most significantly,
their cotton trees. Huge silk cotton
trees lined the side of the main roads leading from the northern hill range
southwards to the Coconut Groves and to Big Pond; so that in Grant’s Town as
one proceeded southwards from the Southern Recreation Grounds at the foot of
the hill, there were not less than seven or eight such giant landmarks, standing
as silent sentinels at regular intervals down the eastern side of the
road. The only silk cotton tree remaining
along Baillou Hill Road today stands at the corner of Cockburn Street, just
outside St. Agnes Church. There used to
be a popular one, a regular rendezvous, just in front of the “Biltmore Shop”, a
general store at the corner of Cameron Street, owned by Mrs. Minna (Frances)
Thompson, one of the more affluent women of substance of Grant’s Town. Indeed, “Minna” Thompson, Mrs. Letitia Curry of
Hay Street, and Mrs. Lee Laing of Market Street, were the only three ladies
“ova-da-hill” who owned motor cars in that era, and they were
chauffeur-driven.
In a sense it is a great pity that these
majestic cotton trees, towering over Market Street, Baillou Hill Road, Hospital
Lane and West Street, had to be taken down for road widening in later years;
for these imposing giants served several purposes in addition to the stately
aura which they provided to the area.
They were regular assembly points for men of the district, particularly
after Church, where discussions on every topic took place, and solutions were given
for every current political issue or local problem. Shoe shine boys set up their stands on Blue
Hill Road, under the cotton tree outside the Biltmore Shop, to earn their
livelihood. The grandeur of the cotton trees gave authority and credence to
“cotton tree justice” which was dispensed from these venues, for the
traditional tribal practice was still prevalent in that period whereby the
respected elders of the district dealt with reported neighbourhood
wrongdoing. They received the
complaint, heard the evidence of the various witnesses and persons concerned,
and handed down their summary judgment which was always accepted, otherwise neighbourhood
ostracism was the penalty.
There is not much heard about “cotton tree
justice” these days, but it was quite a feature of “ova-da-hill” life in times
past. Young boys, in particular, who
where caught, or reported, for cursing, pilfering, ill-manners to their elders,
or other such bad behaviour, they were summarily dealt with under the cotton tree,
receiving the appropriate number of strokes with a belt or switch. And frequently they begged their chastisers
not to report the infraction to their parents, lest they afterwards receive a
double dose of punishment at home.
Quite a contrast from the culture in vogue today, where even teachers
are hesitant to apply any form of punishment to children in their classrooms,
lest they themselves be charged with abuse, or risk worse at the hands of
angry, permissive parents.
Generally speaking, a reference to
“ova-da-hill”, as a means of identity, was a method of describing the
background and social strata of those who lived south of the hill, between Nassau
Street on the west, and Collins Wall on the east. Within those boundaries were contained the
huddled bulk of the black community of the Island. The area was densely crowded, both with its
residents as well as their petty shops, barber shops, cafes, bar rooms, tailors
and dressmakers, hairdressers and road-side fruit stands. All the houses were small wooden dwellings,
seldom more than two bedrooms, plus a dining room and a “front room” or
“parlour”, but there was always also a porch on the front, which was the
family’s communal area every evening after work or school.
The elders of the homes socialized on the
front porch with their neighbours from next door or from “through the corner”,
while the youngsters did their home-work assignments from school, or played
games of hop-scotch, marbles, rolling hoops, flying kites, spinning tops,
telling ole’ stories, and ring-play, until time for bed. The houses were erected on small lots for
the most part, sometimes two houses to a lot; each site was never more than 30’
or 40’ wide by 50’ deep, with its own small out-door toilet in the
backyard. On the side of each house were
a clothes line, and a sunken well, that provided all the family’s water needs
for drinking, cleaning and washing. In
whatever yard space that was left, a small garden always existed with the usual
patch of vegetables, some flowers, and two or three fruit trees. The entire area was remarkable for its
fertile soil, and one could always find a supply of locally grown guineps, ju-ju
(jujubes), dillies (sapodillas), tamarinds, guavas, mammies, hog plums and
scarlet plums, star apples, mangoes, citrus, almonds, coconuts, gooseberries,
sea grapes, sugar apples, sour-sops, and banana.
“Ova-da-hill” was also a wonderful source of
typical Bahamian food. Many of the
regular dishes indigenous to the “ova-da-hill” district were really native
dishes perpetuated by home-makers from their African forebears. Many of those dishes are hardly seen today,
but as a boy I regularly feasted on Foo-Foo, okra soup, accara, coconut jimmy,
crab and dough, guava duff, pig’s feet or sheep-belly souse, yellow corn meal,
aggidi, stew fish, and scorch’ conch.
Not many of our residents could afford to eat in the few native
restaurants that then existed, but for the “more affluent” waiters, truck
drivers, mechanics, artisans and government workers who earned steady salaries,
the small but legendary restaurant, such as that operated only on weekends by
Mrs. Effie Cambridge, at the corner of Baillou Hill Road and Cambridge Lane,
was renowned for its outstanding delicacies in native dishes.
“Ova-da-hill” was not an economically vibrant
neighbourhood during my youth, but those residents who were not permanently
employed “out town”, or were not tradesmen or mechanics, were usually
innovative in making a living as street-side or itinerant vendors. Fish vendors purchased their supplies from
the main fish market on Bay Street, or from nearby sloops moored west of the
Prince George dock. They packed them in
wheel barrows which they carted “ova-da-hill” from street to street, heralding
their arrival by shouting “Fish man! Fish man!” as they walked along pushing
their supply of fresh fish and conch for sale.
In the same way, some enterprising women would walk through the district
carrying large trays of vegetables on their heads, making daily sales to house-owners
who had not gone out to the market.
Others carried on their heads huge bundles of dried grass, tied in a bed
sheet, as they moved through the neighbourhood shouting “Bed grass! Bed grass!”, which was regularly purchased by
persons who could not afford regular mattresses and utilized this native
material to make home-made mattresses for their beds.
The entrepreneurial spirit was even prevalent
amongst the youth. Newspaper deliveries
to subscribers, as well as street sites were handled by teenage boys who went
through the streets of the area every evening delivering newspapers to their
customers, or making sales. Young boys also earned a livelihood by selling hot
peanuts from box-carts, which they made from small wooden crates mounted on
wheels, with a burning coal stove in the bottom compartment to keep the peanuts
warm.
Of course, the regular means of transport
were horse drawn carriages (now only a tourist attraction), horse-drawn drays
and donkey-carts for transporting wholesale freight and large supplies being
delivered to retail establishments “ova-da-hill”. Individuals either rode
bicycles or walked wherever they had to go.
There were comparatively very few motor cars; but of course in those
days the usual destinations were all within walking distance.
In those early years Religion was a dominant
feature of life. The majority of the
early settlers were Anglicans, Methodists, Roman Catholics, Baptists and Church
of God. Prior to the 1940s, there were
only one or two Churches of each such denomination. St. Agnes and later St. Barnabas were the
Anglican Churches which served Grant’s Town and Bain Town. Grant’s Town Wesley was the only Methodist
Church “ova-da-hill”, while Our Lady’s and St. Joseph were the Church homes for
those Roman Catholics who did not wish to make the trek up the hill to St.
Francis on Delancey Town.
The Baptist Churches were “Metropolitan” on
Hay Street, “Transfiguration” at Market and Vesey Streets, and “St. Paul”
through Bias Street, although many Baptists went up on Delancy Town to Bethel,
and to St. John’s on Meeting Street.
The first Church of God was established by the late Bishop W.V. Eneas,
father of the late Dr. Cleveland W. Eneas.
This congregation first worshipped on a site in Hospital Lane south,
then moved to Eneas Jumper Corner, until they relocated the present Cathedral
at the junction of East Street and Lily of the Valley (Red Lion Bar) Corner.
Apart from the Churches, which have certainly
multiplied in abundance over the last 50 years, the social life of the
“ova-da-hill” community was fully supplied by the lodges, friendly societies,
nightclubs and sporting organizations. The more entertaining form of after-work
activity was provided by the nightclubs which were legendary. Strangely, none of them now exist. There was Weary Willie’s at the corner of
Baillou Hill Road and Bias Street, which was a three-storey structure with a
restaurant and shops on the ground floor, hotel rooms on the second floor, and
a nightclub on the top floor. The
Silver Slipper on East Street, the Zanzibar on Baillou Hill Road, and the Cat’n
Fiddle on Nassau Street South, operated almost on a nightly basis, both as dance
halls and nightclubs, and also as fund-raising venues for charities and social
organizations which did not have access, as they do today, to the hotels and
white establishments to which black and coloured patrons were at that time racially
barred.
Music was a predominant feature of the
day-to-day life “ova-da-hill”.
Practically every child went to “music lessons” in addition to the
regular day school attendance, to study music and to learn to play the piano,
violin, saxophone or some other instrument.
The teachers were usually a Church organist, member of a band or
orchestra, or some other accomplished musician in the district. And there were many. Names that immediately come to mind are
Charles Weir, Bert Cambridge, W.A.G. Bain, Blanche Horton Stuart (later
Wright), Charles Carey, Nat Bosfield, “Bulla” Roberts (who was also the father
of Persis Rodgers), Rudy Williams,
Freddie Munnings, Sr., Eric Cash, Maurice Harvey, Eric Russell and “Sir Buck”
Marshall. There were also many musical
performers in the entertainment field, such as Sidney Wood, Eloise Lewis, Joe
Lord, Maureen Duvalier, Charlie Adamson and “Joe Billy” Rolle, who was renowned
for his Saturday night “jumpin’ dance” sessions in the Cat Island Association
Hall through King Street.
Another form of entertainment was provided by
the neighbourhood movie houses. The
Palace Theatre was in existence from my earliest recollection. It was situated in Grant’s Town at the foot
of the hill opposite the Southern Recreation Grounds and was owned by Mr. Louis
Duvalier who lived on Market Street.
Years later, in the 1940s, the Cinema Theatre was established at the
corner of East and Lewis Streets; and in the 1950s Mr. Percy Pinder built and
operated the Hill Side Theatre at the corner of East Street and Mason’s
Addition. This was followed by the
Capital Theatre which was built on Market Street opposite the Southern
Recreation Grounds. None of these movie
houses exist today.
Sport was a pervading outlet for the energies
and interests of the young people of the community. Cricket was the national sport, with soccer
and rugby the popular winter interests.
Everyone either played cricket or was a knowledgeable enthusiast. Each district in the Island was represented
by a senior team, all competing for an annual championship trophy. There was St. George’s for the Eastern
District, St. Alban’s for the West, The Wanderers for the Police and St.
Michael’s (later St. Agnes) for “Ova-da-hill”.
In later years, there were additional teams like St. Bernard’s for the
Catholic community, the Vikings, and the Westerns. Of course, today, the youngsters from
“ova-da-hill” excel in all forms of current popular sport, including track and
field, baseball, softball and basketball.
They stand, symbolically and proudly, on the shoulders of many former
“ova-da-hill” champions in all disciplines of Bahamian sport.
Importantly, however, were the many leaders
in commerce, industry, education, government and the professions who came from
humble beginnings “ova-da-hill” and, despite many obstacles of opportunity and
financial means, went on to become the Bahamian legends of the present and past
generations who were the prominent “ova-da-hill” merchants of yesteryear.
Many of today’s lawyers, doctors, dentists
and other professionals have their roots “ova-da-hill”, but they were rare
specimens 50 years ago. Dr. C. R.
Walker was probably the first, followed by Dr. Cleveland W. Eneas from Bain
Town. I was acclaimed as the first
lawyer from “ova-da-hill” when I was called to the Bar 56 years ago. In
fact, the late Justice Maxwell J. Thompson, although born in Inagua, grew up in
Mason’s Addition and could certainly claim to have been an “ova-da-hill” boy
when he was called to the Bar seven years earlier in 1946. Serving the entire
area was a single Police Station, and fire engine, which provided the police
and emergency needs of the “ova-da-hill” community in the early days. The first Southern Police Station was in
fact destroyed during the infamous Burma Road Riot of 1942. It was then located on the western side of
Baillou Hill Road, at its junction with Bias Street, opposite which was the
two-storey building at Vesey Street which housed the Post Office on the ground
floor and the Grant’s Town Public Library on the upper floor. Here, many of us, as students, went to do
our home-work under the helpful eye of Miss Lily Weir, the Librarian. It is interesting to note that her niece,
Mrs. Lillian Weir Coakley, was later appointed a librarian after the library
had been later relocated to its present site, nine years later in 1951, when
the present Southern Public Library was erected on the Southern Recreation
Grounds after much parliamentary and governmental difficulty sustained by its
promoters, Dr. C. R. Walker and Mr. Bert A. Cambridge, the MPs for the
District.
In those early days the community leaders
were the few professionals and the more successful merchants, teachers and
artisans who stood out and were relied upon for guidance in all the public and
civic occasions. They were also the
officers in the Churches, in lodges, burial societies and the fledging credit
unions, some of which were not more than Asues. The late Dr. C. R. Walker was the only
medical doctor who set up his office over-the-hill. He had first established a consulting office
on the hill-top, on Meeting Street opposite Bethel Baptist Church; but he later
built the Reinhardt Hotel at the corner of Baillou Hill Road and the Tin Shop
Corner, and moved his office and a small pharmacy on the ground floor of this
building, which he himself designed and constructed. He also published a weekly newspaper, “The
Voice”, from this building. Immediately
to the South of the Reinhardt Hotel was the Grant’s Town Market, which was an
adjunct to the main fish and vegetable market on Bay Street. The Bay Street Market was a venerable old
Spanish-type building on the North side of Bay Street, opposite the Northern
end of Market Street, bounded on its western side by the Government Ice House which
daily manufactured ice for the entire Island in those days, prior to the advent
of refrigerators in homes. On the
Southern side of the Grant’s Town Market there was a small area to which ice
was delivered daily from the factory “ice house” on Bay Street, and
“ova-da-hill” residents could purchase their daily ice requirements from their
own ice depot each morning. A corn mill
was also located in this Grant’s Town Market, where residents took the corn
grown in their own fields “over Blue Hill”, or in their own backyards, to be
ground into grits or meal for their personal home use.
And so life went on. Over the past generation, most of the old
families from “ova-da-hill” have expanded in numbers, in affluence, and in
importance in the Country. They have
become some of the Country’s main “movers and shakers”. Grant’s Town and Bain
Town which produced the achievers of yesteryear still provide homes for the
under-class, mostly the present-day less privileged who have moved into the
area from outlying Family Islands, and immigrants from Haiti and other
Caribbean Islands. Meanwhile, as
“ova-da-hill” expands, large commercial and industrial establishments continue
to base themselves in this popular and historic sector.
This year, as we celebrate 36 years as an
Independent Nation, those of us who hail from “ova-da-hill” must look back with
pride to our roots and to this area from which we came.
February
2009
