The Chi­nese As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (CATT) has con­firmed plans to de­mol­ish its his­toric build­ing at 7 St Ann’s Road, Port-of-Spain.

CATT pres­i­dent Col­in Mitchell yes­ter­day said struc­tur­al as­sess­ments have deemed the 79-year-old land­mark un­safe, ef­fec­tive­ly end­ing its chap­ter as a hub for cul­tur­al and com­mu­ni­ty ac­tiv­i­ties.

“This de­ci­sion was not made light­ly. The safe­ty of our mem­bers and the fu­ture of our fa­cil­i­ties had to come first,” Mitchell said yes­ter­day.

How­ev­er, the Na­tion­al Trust of Trinidad and To­ba­go has iden­ti­fied sev­er­al ar­chi­tec­tur­al el­e­ments for preser­va­tion from the site. These in­clude cast iron roof work, a weath­er vane, etched glass doors, cast iron pil­lars, and a mur­al by artist Dar­ren Chee Wah. In 2021, the Na­tion­al Trust is­sued a let­ter sup­port­ing the de­mo­li­tion if these fea­tures were sal­vaged.

CATT has be­gun doc­u­ment­ing the build­ing’s his­to­ry. Lo­cal pho­tog­ra­ph­er Liam Boodoo, who spe­cialis­es in ar­chi­tec­tur­al her­itage, is pho­tograph­ing the struc­ture’s de­tails. The as­so­ci­a­tion is al­so col­lect­ing arte­facts and mem­ber sto­ries to record the site’s lega­cy.

“We aim to pre­serve the build­ing’s cul­tur­al and his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance through de­tailed doc­u­men­ta­tion,” said Mitchell.

CATT will host a farewell event fea­tur­ing pho­tographs, arte­facts and sto­ries from the build­ing’s his­to­ry. The event will al­so launch its Char­i­ty Christ­mas Meal for el­der­ly and un­der­priv­i­leged res­i­dents of St Ann’s. The as­so­ci­a­tion ac­quired the prop­er­ty in 1945. The build­ing host­ed cul­tur­al, so­cial and ed­u­ca­tion­al ac­tiv­i­ties and char­i­ty events. It stands as a sym­bol of the Chi­nese com­mu­ni­ty’s con­tri­bu­tions to T&T since 1806.