The Day After Tomorrow

The Day After Tomorrow is part of a project that explores family legacies and loss in the Caribbean. Since returning to Nevis in 2024, I have been uncovering aspects of my family history and collating narratives that keep a record of our past.

The house at Brown Pasture was constructed in the 1920s by my great-great-grandfather and is one of the few remaining examples of colonial-style architecture in Nevis. It was originally built as his retirement home, then used as a church before being passed down in the family. No formal inheritance was set after my great-grandmother's death, and there was no clear plan for the future of the property. After family members eventually moved away, no one was there to, nor had the means to, invest in the upkeep.

This pattern of property neglect is not uncommon on the island in cases where families have moved (often abroad) and have no interest and/or financial support to ensure these houses are maintained. Moreover, as the colonial-style wood and stone structures are no longer endorsed for insurance funding by banks, this style of architecture is rapidly being replaced by bank-approved concrete homes. As a result, these architectural histories are slowly being lost to time.