Businessman Alfred Galy applied to the Port-of-Spain City Corporation yesterday for a demolition notice for the former Greyfriars church on Frederick Street.
This comes a week after the corporation ordered work on the site stopped after Galy’s workmen removed the roof of the church hall and part of the roof of the church itself.
Fears that Galy was demolishing the building led to protests last week from the NGO Citizens for Conservation, and National Diversity Minister Rodger Samuel said the deconsecrated church would soon be listed as a protected historic building.
But in an interview yesterday, chief inspector at the city engineer’s office Deoraj Ramtahal confirmed Galy had submitted a demolition application to his office. He added that Galy had also met with the corporation yesterday to discuss ways to save the property by converting it into a suitable business.
“He submitted the application in order to comply with the corporation’s regulations,” Ramtahal said.
Galy is expected to meet with Ramtahal and members of Town and Country Planning at the Ministry of Finance today.
Yesterday, the site remained quiet, with no signs of workers.
In a letter to the editor in today’s T&T Guardian, historian Michael Anthony, appealing for the church to be preserved, recorded that it was founded by the Rev Alexander Kennedy of the Church of Scotland, a man he described as the most dynamic and zealous of local missionaries. Anthony said Kennedy came to T&T in 1836 and converted an unused building on Cambridge Street (then part of St Vincent Street) into a little chapel, then began building his own church the next year. Kennedy was an ardent abolitionist. (See letter on p25)
A petition calling for the preservation of the property and addressed to the Town and Country Planning Division had gathered over 600 online signatures as of yesterday. The petition, started by concerned citizen Joshua Lue Chee Kong, expresses concern over the potential demolition of the church, and says it should be preserved at all costs to benefit future generations.
“Therefore we wish with all the power granted by your office, that this matter be resolved immediately and that the church gains the necessary protection it deserves as a heritage site as quickly as possible,” it reads.