Rishard Khan

rishard.khan@gau­r­dian.co.tt

A his­toric piece of the Mag­nif­i­cent Sev­en has been re­turned to its orig­i­nal glo­ry, Mille Fleurs, 116 years af­ter it was ini­tial­ly con­struct­ed. And while stand­ing a tes­ta­ment to his­to­ry, it would al­so hope to guide the way for­ward as it would now house the Na­tion­al Trust, non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tions, and host cul­tur­al events.

The Dining room table at the refurbished Mille Fleurs Building

ANISTO ALVES

The build­ing which un­der­went restora­tion works in 2016 was com­plet­ed at a cost of $10 mil­lion, Min­is­ter of Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Cul­ture and the Arts Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly said. It would now house the Na­tion­al Trust in an an­nex which is con­vert­ed from the sta­bles dur­ing the restora­tion.

"They are go­ing to rent out to NGOs for of­fice space. There are quite a num­ber of NGOs that come to the min­istry...and they don't have of­fice space and that's al­ways a prob­lem in terms of them pro­gress­ing," Gads­by-Dol­ly said.

The staircase at the refurbished Mille Fleurs Building.

ANISTO ALVES

"The space with­in the build­ing it­self, that's go­ing to be rent­ed out for cul­tur­al events, wed­dings, that kind of thing of course with par­tic­u­lar guide­lines."

The house was built by Mrs Pra­da as a gift for her hus­band Dr En­rique Pra­da, was the home of the Pra­da fam­i­ly for 19 years. The name Mille Fleurs is orig­i­nal and was be­stowed up­on the struc­ture by Mrs Pra­da her­self. The house was built in 1904 by George Brown of the Trinidad Trad­ing Com­pa­ny, un­der the guid­ance of Dr Pra­da, who had a par­tic­u­lar in­ter­est in the build­ing.

Jesse-Marie Chaves standing and Heather May-Witten relatives of the Prada family who where the first owners of Mille Fleurs during its handover from Ministry of Community Development Culture and the Arts to the City of Port-of-Spain.

ANISTO ALVES