The Na­tion­al Trust of T&T has con­grat­u­lat­ed the Chi­nese As­so­ci­a­tion on its 75th An­niver­sary which is be­ing cel­e­brat­ed this month.

Lo­cat­ed at 7 St Ann’s Road, the Chi­nese As­so­ci­a­tion is record­ed on the Na­tion­al Trust’s Reg­is­ter of Her­itage As­sets. Through­out our his­to­ry, build­ings of this type, apart from their ar­chi­tec­tur­al fea­tures which re­mind us of our shared his­to­ry, have served as a core part of build­ing com­mu­ni­ties and trans­mit­ting cul­tur­al prac­tices to younger gen­er­a­tions.

This unique build­ing con­tains beau­ti­ful colo­nial ar­chi­tec­tur­al fea­tures in­clud­ing wood­en fret­work, cast iron columns and unique etched glass. It is a build­ing with a strik­ing cast iron crest­ing on top of its front fac­ing gables, with wood­en jalousies lin­ing the win­dows and or­nate brack­ets ad­joined to the poles which cre­ate a dec­o­ra­tive en­trance to the build­ing. A strik­ing fea­ture is the mur­al on one of its walls which was cre­at­ed in 2012 to mark the Lantern fes­ti­val which co­in­cid­ed with the Gold­en Ju­bilee of the Na­tion’s In­de­pen­dence that year.

The As­so­ci­a­tion was found­ed on Oc­to­ber 10, 1945. One of the ma­jor op­er­at­ing ob­jec­tives was to work for the cul­tur­al, so­cial, ed­u­ca­tion­al and eco­nom­ic up­lift­ment of the Chi­nese com­mu­ni­ty in T&T. The as­so­ci­a­tion has wel­comed peo­ple from all cul­tur­al and eth­nic back­grounds to be­come mem­bers and par­tic­i­pate in the var­i­ous ac­tiv­i­ties that are held through­out the year. The build­ing is cur­rent­ly closed due to the im­pact of COVID-19 how­ev­er, once re­stric­tions are lift­ed, the or­ga­ni­za­tion in­tends to open its doors.