Saltfish Hall
From WiKiGrenada
“Sal’fish Hall”- the ‘decrepit building’ in this ``Peschief`` photo (above)-began life in the 1940s as “Gordon’s Hall”: it makes a an unimpeachable claim to being the country’s first and longest- running social and recreational centre; and we know for sure that it was part of a complex which constituted Grenada’s very first shopping plaza.
The shopping plaza included “the hall”-the dance, entertainment and recreational centre- plus a large, two-story structure which provided a bar and billiards room on its upper floor, the lower level being a “busy” dry goods store. Two other buildings completed the complex: an ice cream parlour, and a cola (soft drink) bottling plant. It is little wonder that the hall was Grenada’s hottest ‘spot’ back in the forties and fifties.
It was at the hall that a Paradise boy by the name
Eric Gairy (1922-1997), then a young teacher at
the La Fillette school –learned how to dance the fox
trot; forty years later Talkshop’s “Corporal
Naught” would be in that very place, skanking to
the music of Bob Marley.
When Eric Gairy returned from Aruba in
December 1950 the hall would be the site of
his earliest fundraising activities and ,
significantly, his “little people’s” manifesto was
first broadcast on a loudspeaker that was the
property of “Cahpral” Gordon, owner of the
hall.
“Gordon’s Hall” was of course named for “Cahpral”
Spencer Gordon who, according to the Paradise
historians- “came back from Cuba with ah whole
crocus bag full ah money”. That story is now lodged
in the dense fog of my childhood and I am not too
sure whether it was a big crocus bag or just ah
little one. It was a bag of money, however, and a bag
ah money is a lot of money. In addition to the big
bag ah money, Cahpral Spencer Gordon and wife
Louisa (“Cabwit”) came back to Grenada with a
Cuban –born daughter named “Princess”; she is
the mother of Ponty, Solid, Galbars and Tessa-
the Archibalds.
In its forties and fifties heyday, the hall was the
site of the hottest calypso shows anywhere in
Grenada . “Lord Pretender”, “Small Island Pride”,
“Sir Galba” and Lord Ziegfield performed there
in 1945; “ Bomber” and “Quo Vadis]” did their
respective things in the fifties. In fact, Quo Vadis
used to live in a small building right next to the
hall. Denis Thomas, who will become calypso’s
original `Inspector`- grew up in Paradise and
probably heard his first calypsoes in the hall;
Winston “Winty” Glasgow (“African Teller”)
definitely took in his first calypso shows at the
hall, so too did bards like “Saldo”, “Cobo”
( Vennie McCauley), “ The Vibrator”
(Stephen Douglas, Toronto), “Joe Joe”
(Joseph Taylor, Brooklyn), Carl “Pa Jay”Douglas,
and “Science” (Ronald Gardener).
Socameister Kevin Rougier was born and raised
just a few short paces from the hall and many
of his childhood nights would have been filled
with the music and the ecstatic shouts coming
from that place. On those sweltering nights
little Kevin would lie awake while the black
silhouettes of his hopes and dreams danced
eerily on the walls of his mind. Truly, the hall
was Paradise’s Apollo Theatre and every new
talent tended to spout out of its rickety stage.
Volume Two Steel Orchestra made its first
public appearance at the Hall Yard one Sunday
afternoon in 1973. The area’s first panside,
Black Swan, gave its first concert there almost
thirty years before Volume Two’s coming-
out party. Black Swan was led by Aldwyn Taylor
(father of Lennox, Ellen, Ann, Goderick and
others): Swan`s membership included “Johnny
Guitar” Wilson Charles, Neg Douglas, Drayton
“Bounce” Thomas, Mitchell “Jobbie” Joseph
(1922-2008)- Eric Gairy’s first bodyguard; and
Cosmos “Peter May” Donald, who had a walk-
on role in “Island in the Sun” –the 1957 movie
about race relations on the fictional island of
Santa Maria. Cosmos was the father of pannist
Dennis “John Squares” Date.
The hall saw duty as a medical centre (once each
week) during the forties and fifties , when Dr Ferguson
led the war against the scourges of consumption(TB)
yaws, and a host of venereal diseases. The good doctor
worked long days, seeing patients by lantern light
long after the darkness would have devoured the
village.
In the 1940s the hall was home to pre-primary
schools run by “Sea-egg babe” (he sported a white,
stubble beard)Cummings and Miss Lashley.
In the fifties and up to the mid-sixties “Teacher
Nazarine” (Cecelia Gordon, deceased), “Teacher
Patrice” and “Teacher Marjoan” taught the wee ones
how to read and write. By the end of the sixties and
into the seventies a new generation of alphabetarians
was sitting at Georgiana Forsyth’s (“Teacher Georgie”)
feet.
The hall was headquarters to the social institution
that all of Paradise seems proud of-the [[Apex
Club]]. From its birth in the fifties to its demise in
the mid-sixties, Apex played a critical role in
promoting associational life in Paradise,
La Fillette, Dunfermline, Pearls and Simon(seamoon).
The hall saw it all.
Nearly seventy years later, the now decrepit icon
continues to sit demurely alongside a stretch of
the Eastern Main Road, its windows shuttered
and its glorious history hidden from public view.
Alas, the eye that peers through history’s lens
discerns a venerable landmark and the true
meaning of “community”.
Human communities are organisms that are forged
and sustained in the thoughts, words and deeds
of ordinary men and women. Of course real
communities are made and sustained in historical
time and space. Saltfish Hall is one such historical
place. We must cherish it; we preserve it.
Note: This story was incited by Peschief’s photo.
Author gratefully acknowledges the assistance
of three Paradise historians: Lennie N. Fleary,
Edison Taylor and Kenroy “Khanhai” Gordon.
