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Two local entities that lost all their valuable historical records are urging local businesses and entities, whether public or private, government or non-governmental, including community organizations, to always take steps to protect their historical records from fire.
The advice came from the general manager of the St. Lucia Winery and the executive director of the Folk Research Center (FRC) Monsignor Patrick Anthony, both of which lost all their valuable historical and research records in the devastating fire.
Last weekend, the two executives attended a book launch for their new book, “The Story of the Roseau Valley,” at the Roseau St. Lucia Winery compound, where they each spoke of the importance of preserving historical records for occasions and events such as compiling community and company histories.
“It means a lot to us to be part of this project because we know how important it is to preserve history,” said Margaret Monplesier, General Manager of St. Lucia Winery, in her welcome remarks.
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“On May 2, 2007, the St. Lucia Winery suffered a devastating fire, resulting in the loss of all our historical records,” she recalls.
Ms. Monpresse, who has been with the company for more than 30 years, explained: “While we have computerized our financial information, we have not yet digitized our historical records.”
“We felt this loss deeply, and it made us realize even more deeply the importance of recording and preserving history,” she recalled.
The general manager further recalled that recently, “while conducting research for a geographical indication application for St. Lucia rum, we had difficulty finding specific information about distilleries in St. Lucia.”
“This experience,” she said, “has reaffirmed the value of preserving history – and when the opportunity arose to help document the history of our hometown, the Roseau Valley, we jumped at it…”
In his speech, FRC acting executive director Melchoir Henry noted that in 2018, the FRC’s historic building at Mourne Plaisance, Calvary Road, Castries, burned down, “and we lost 40 years of records as well”.
“The fire was extremely destructive and severely damaged the building and destroyed all the historical records” stored in the spacious historic building, which also has colonial architecture, he said.
Henry said “we’re trying to build back better,” but in addition to encouraging other communities to follow Roseau’s lead and conduct research and record keeping, he encouraged them to keep the historical records safe.
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