The old Captain Hodge house on Back Street, Philipsburg, St. Maarten.
Paid public parking
lot for Back Street
~ Old house to be moved to Emilio Wilson Park ~
PHILIPSBURG/St. Maarten--A new paid public parking lot is to be constructed on the site of the old Back Street Clinic in the coming months. The area, opposite Old Street, was cleared recently to make way for the construction.
An old Caribbean style house on the property will be taken apart and carted to Emilio Cultural and Historical Park in Cul de Sac where it will be a monument and an example of an old-time island house. The foundation for the house is already being built at the park.
The house, built between 1920 and 1940, was once occupied by Captain Augustine Hodge after whom the wharf on Cyrus Wathey Square is named, and his wife Alberta Hodge-Laurence.
Four of their six children – Tony Velasquez, Rose Marie Velasquez, Bobby Velasquez of Bobby’s Marina and Ariel Halley-Velasquez – were born in the house. The youngest sibling Katherine was born in the Hodge guesthouse on the Great Bay beach.
Hodge-Laurence’s eldest child from her previous relationship, Carlson Velasquez, was born in Aruba.
The house will be featured in the 2007 Monument Calendar.
The old cistern connected to the house will remain on the property as part of the parking lot.
Outlining the plans at Wednesday’s Executive Council press briefing, Commissioner Roy Marlin said a parking lot in this area was one of the suggestions of the Philipsburg and Greater Great Bay Development Vision prepared by the Almere Group in 2003.
The idea for a parking lot at this spot is not new, as Five Seas Corporation, the developers of Old Street, made a similar proposal in 1994 because of the limited parking for tour buses on the street at that time, forcing them to head directly to the French side with cruise passengers, he said.
The Executive Council decided in 1997 to accept the proposal with the condition that the developers take care of the new location for the clinic.
The clinic has ceased operations since then and in exchange for permission to build the parking lot the developers will pay for the construction of four new classrooms at M. Genevieve de Weever Primary School in Hope Estate.
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