Red House | |
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![]() Red House (2007) | |
General information | |
Town or city | Highstreet, Kingston, Georgetown |
Country | ![]() |
Coordinates | 6°49′22″N58°09′45″W / 6.82264°N 58.16261°W Coordinates: 6°49′22″N58°09′45″W / 6.82264°N 58.16261°W |
Technical details | |
Material | Wood |
Red House (also: Kamana Court) located in Kingston, Georgetown, was the official residence of the Colonial Secretary and later the Premier of British Guiana. [1] As of 22 March 2000, [2] it houses the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre. [1]
The Red House is a wooden colonial building from the 19th century. [1] [3] In the early 20th century, the building was owned by Eustace Woolford, a former Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. In 1925, the building was acquired by the government of British Guiana to serve as official residence of the Colonial Secretary. [4]
In 1961, the Red House became the official residence for Cheddi Jagan, the first Premier of British Guiana. [1] Forbes Burnham was elected in 1964 and changed the official residence to Castellani House. [4] From 1964 onwards, the Red House was used by various governmental agencies. In 1972, the Non-Aligned Conference was held in Georgetown, and the Red House was renamed Kamana Court. [1] The building was declared a national monument of Guyana. [5]
On 22 March 2000, the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre, a centre dedicated to the life and work of Cheddi Jagan, opened in the Red House. The centre is operated by friends and family of Jagan [2] who had signed a 99-year lease on the building. [6] On 29 December 2016, the lease was revoked by President David A. Granger who had planned to move the National Trust of Guyana into the building. [3] The centre took the matter to the courts who ruled on 16 August 2020 that Granger's revocation was illegal and unlawful, and that the centre could retain the lease. [6]
Georgetown is the capital and largest city of Guyana. It is situated in Demerara-Mahaica, region 4, on the Atlantic Ocean coast, at the mouth of the Demerara River. It is nicknamed the "Garden City of the Caribbean." It is the retail, administrative, and financial services centre of the country, and the city accounts for a large portion of Guyana's GDP. The city recorded a population of 118,363 in the 2012 census.
The history of Guyana begins about 35,000 years ago with the arrival of humans coming from Eurasia. These migrants became the Carib and Arawak tribes, who met Alonso de Ojeda's first expedition from Spain in 1499 at the Essequibo River. In the ensuing colonial era, Guyana's government was defined by the successive policies of Spanish, French, Dutch, and British settlers.
HE Cheddi Berret Jagan was a Guyanese politician and dentist who was first elected Chief Minister in 1953 and later Premier of British Guiana from 1961 to 1964. He later served as President of Guyana from 1992 to his death in 1997. Jagan is widely regarded in Guyana as the Father of the Nation. In 1953, he became the first Hindu and person of Indian descent to be a head of government outside of South Asia.
Janet Rosenberg Jagan was a U.S.-born Guyanese politician who served as the President of Guyana, serving from December 19, 1997, to August 11, 1999. She was the first female President of Guyana. She previously served as the first female Prime Minister of Guyana from March 17, 1997, to December 19, 1997. The wife of Cheddi Jagan, whom she succeeded as president, she was awarded Guyana's highest national award, the Order of Excellence, in 1993, and the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Gold Medal for Women's Rights in 1998.
Hugh Desmond Hoyte was a Guyanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Guyana from 1984 to 1985 and President of Guyana from 1985 until 1992.
Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham was a Guyanese politician and the leader of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana from 1964 until his death in 1985. He served as Prime Minister from 1964 to 1980 and then as its first Executive President from 1980 to 1985. He is often regarded as a strongman who embraced his own version of communism. Throughout his presidency, he encouraged Guyanese to produce and export more local goods, especially through the use of state-run corporations and agricultural cooperatives. Despite being widely regarded as one of the principal architects of the postcolonial Guyanese state, his presidency was nonetheless marred by repeated accusations of Afro-supremacy, state-sanctioned violence, economic collapse, electoral fraud, and corruption.
Kaieteur Falls is the world's largest single drop waterfall by the volume of water flowing over it. Located on the Potaro River in the Kaieteur National Park, it sits in a section of the Amazon rainforest included in the Potaro-Siparuni region of Guyana. It is 226 metres (741 ft) high when measured from its plunge over a sandstone and conglomerate cliff to the first break. It then flows over a series of steep cascades that, when included in the measurements, bring the total height to 251 metres (822 ft). While many falls have greater height, few have the combination of height and water volume, and Kaieteur is among the most powerful waterfalls in the world with an average flow rate of 663 cubic metres per second.
The University of Guyana, in Georgetown, Guyana, is Guyana's national higher education institution. It was established in April 1963 with the following Mission: "To discover, generate, disseminate, and apply knowledge of the highest standard for the service of the community, the nation, and of all mankind within an atmosphere of academic freedom that allows for free and critical enquiry."
Queen's College (QC) is a public secondary school in Georgetown, Guyana.
Arthur James Seymour, or A. J. Seymour, was a Guyanese poet, essayist, memoirist, and founding editor of the literary journal Kyk-Over-Al.
Cheddi Jagan International Airport, formerly Timehri International Airport, is the national airport of Guyana. The airport is located on the right bank of the Demerara River in the city of Timehri, 41 kilometres (25 mi) south of Guyana's capital, Georgetown. It is the larger of the two international airports serving Georgetown with the other airport being the Eugene F. Correira International Airport.
St. Andrew's Kirk is one of the oldest buildings in Georgetown, Guyana that has been continually in use for religious purposes. The Dutch Reformed congregation laid its foundations in 1811. However, due to financial difficulties it was acquired by Scottish Presbyterians and was formally opened for service on 28 February 1818.
State House located in Georgetown, is the official residence of the president of Guyana. It was previously the official residence of the governor of British Guiana before the colony gained independence and became Guyana.
David Arthur Granger is a retired military officer who served as the 9th President of Guyana from May 2015 to August 2020. He served for a time as Commander of the Guyana Defence Force and subsequently as National Security Adviser from 1990 to 1992. He was Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly of Guyana from 2012 to 2015.
Georgetown City Hall is a nineteenth-century Gothic Revival building located on the corner of Regent Street and Avenue of the Republic in Georgetown, Guyana. The building was designed by architect Reverend Ignatius Scoles in 1887, and was completed in June 1889. The building houses the offices of the Mayor, the City Council, and the City Engineer.
Guyana, officially the Co‑operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north, Brazil to the south and southwest, Venezuela to the west, and Suriname to the east. With 215,000 square kilometres (83,000 sq mi), Guyana is the third-smallest sovereign state by area in mainland South America after Uruguay and Suriname, and is the second-least populous sovereign state in South America after Suriname; it is also one of the least densely populated countries on Earth. It has a wide variety of natural habitats and very high biodiversity.
The Political Affairs Committee (PAC) was a political party in British Guiana.
Isahak Basir CCH was a Guyanese historian who was a member of the National Assembly of Guyana from 1977 to 1991. Basir was nicknamed "Uncle Tabrak" and was of Indian descent.
Squatting in Guyana is the occupation of unused land or derelict buildings without the permission of the owner. Squatting has been used as a means to find housing by people displaced by conflict in the 1960s and by internal migrants from the 1980s onwards. In 2015, there were estimated to be over 100,000 squatters across the country. The government announced the National Squatter Regularisation Commission (NSRC) and the State Land Resettlement Commission in 2020, in the following year it allied with UN-Habitat to create the Guyana Strategy for Informal Settlements Upgrading and Prevention (GSISUP) which aims to regularize all informal settlements by 2030.
Kingston is a former village in Demerara. In 1837, it became a ward of Georgetown. The ward is located along the Atlantic Ocean coast. Kingston is home to many landmarks and historic buildings.