Where is everyone today??
Out enjoying your Sunday, I guess.

Well, here are two other old pictures. These might be easy to guess but I think they are neat pictures, since they are aerial views.





[barcann.livejournal.com]

As usual I'll PM you on those two

Kind Regards,
Philippe



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oh, I knew you would know, Philippe!

[barcann.livejournal.com]

I got 'em too! Hee, hee... B, those were WAY too EASY!!!

peace

I have no idea, any clues?

Photo #1.......the Old Mullet?
Photo #2.......Club O

Contessa

Yep, photo 2 is Club O.
but # 1 IS NOT the old Mullet.

so we need some more guesses on #1.

[barcann.livejournal.com]

That big building looks like the place I mentioned earlier in a thread. Where we used to live!

# 1 is the "head of town" at the end of Great Bay Beach. The large building to the right is the Jetty condos designed many moons ago by my dad. The large square building to the left is the old ABN Bank building,

Those ARE great pictures, Barbara.

I love the pic of the head of town. Barbara, what is the history of the big old house which is still there - the one which is currently beside the Vineyard Building and which can be seen in your photo.

Thanks
Keala

KealaSxm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I love the pic of the head of town. Barbara, what
> is the history of the big old house which is still
> there - the one which is currently beside the
> Vineyard Building and which can be seen in your
> photo.
>
> Thanks
> Keala


Actually, there was really a Vineyard and it was the Vineyard House...

Kind Regards,
Philippe



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Hi Raymond, good to see you here!

It was fun living in the Jetty. Park the car on the beach in front of your house . Little noisy with Two for Tuesdays at the Greenhouse but it made for great people watching from the balcony.

Kealasxm

The Vineyard building you mention is called that after the house.
The house is the Vineyard and was built here in 1867 I beleive for a member of the Van Romondt family... The Van Romondts were an influential Dutch family here in the nineteenth century and they owned much of the island at the time.. Many people today, including my husband, are descended from that family.
Actually the house was supposedly prefabricated in the USA and reassembled here, and it was based on the same design as a home in Martha's Vineyard that Mr. Van Romondt liked.
The Buncamper family own it now.

[barcann.livejournal.com]

You are right, the Van Romondts were THE family of St Maarten at that time and like you said owned pretty much everything on both side of the island including tintamarre (Flat Island).

The first to come to St.Martin was Diederik Johannes van Romondt (1781-1849) who arrived from Holland in 1801. He served as governor of Sint Maarten from 1820 to 1840. From that time for more than a century the van Romondts were the undisputed leaders and social arbiters. The last member having the van Romondt name was Diederik Christian (1871-1948) who died at the age of 76 at Mary's Fancy, his estate in Dutch Cul de Sac.

Because of a dispute over property taxes in 1902 Diederik Christian moved to the Isle of Tintamarre, which he also owned. (There is no reason to believe that Tintamarre is a Dutch island as it was not included in the original partition treaty of the main island of St. Martin 23 March, 1648). Then it began the most memorable period of Diederik Christian's life, and one of the most amazing chapters in the history of the island.

There, it was said about him, that he reigned unmolested in almost legal independence. In fact, a French journalist wrote in Journal de Paris, August 23rd, 1913 under the headlines of "Le Roi de Tintamarre" (The King of Tintamarre), so glowingly that "he received many letters from Paris, Italy, and Germany, and some from heiresses who solicited a lifelong partnership with Mr. van Romondt to become 'queen' of a romance as well as Tintamarre."

For the people working for him (most of them from Anguilla) he founded a shop on the island, and in 1913 he imported 30,000 Dutch cents, which were circulated among them as a currency of his own. Dutch cents were seldom used as a means of payment in the Windward islands; Mr. van Romondt attributed an exchange rate of value of half a penny to each cent. Those who left could exchange their saved cents for current coins on Sint Maarten (smart...).

He raised 60 to 70 head of cattle and about 540 sheep, grew fine sea island cotton, and made cheese and butter which were renowned throughout the West Indies. Then in 1931 he sold the island to Louis Constant Fleming (the Father of the actual President), wich was at that time a merchant and mayor of Marigot, and the following year Diederik Christian returned to Mary's Fancy where he died in 1948.

And if I am not mistaken, he was Dee's great uncle, no? Since Dee's ancestor was Lionel Van Romondt

Kind Regards,
Philippe



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