Carisa Lee
Reporter
carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt
The Chaguaramas Military History and Aviation Museum (CMHAM) has until Friday to vacate the premises it occupies at Western Main Road, Carenage Bay. In a letter dated October 1, 2024, the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) withdrew its 30-year lease offer to the museum’s director, Linda Kelshall. She said the museum houses more than 500 years of history.
The CDA said they made several attempts to regularise CMHAM as a lessee, but in the last four years have not received a substantive response from the proprietors who continue to operate on the land without paying rent.
CMHAM Vice President Brian Mitchell said it was not the first time the CDA had tried to evict the museum. In 2013 the CDA offered them an alternative parcel of land, but the negotiations broke down on the issue of paying for the land.
“At the time, that figure was around $20 million. It’s a piece of heavily forested land, and it had to be cleared, prepared, built,” Mithcell explained.
Volunteer Matthew Ali, 20, said he dedicates his time to the museum because he believes in preserving the past.
“A lot of people from my generation, people underestimate us, they think that we would agree with expanding the amusement park just next door; we would agree with it and just say oh that museum old, we don’t need that but this is our culture, this is our heritage,” he said.
PRO Kathy-Ann Edwards said the museum continues to conduct tours. “Just weekend gone, we had UWI students and a lot of young people. They come here because they have homework, and when they come in here, they are always amazed of the history,” she explained.
With tears in her eyes, director Linda Kelshall said her last word to her late husband, Gaylord Kelshall, who founded the museum, was that she would fulfil his dream. She recalled that it started in his small museum in Cotton Hill, and in 1991 the Ministry of Planning approved a 30-year lease for the parcel of land the museum currently occupies.
