Government House, The Bahamas

Government House is the official residence of the Governor General of the Bahamas.

Built on a hill known as Mount Fitzwilliam and completed in 1806, this imposing stuccoed-coral-rock building on Duke Street is the Bahamian archipelago's foremost example of Georgian Colonial architecture. In 1814, Colonel Don Antonio de Alcedo, a Spanish scholar and soldier, wrote admiringly of its effect.The Oriental Herald, in 1825, stated: "The new Government-House, standing on the centre of the ridge that overlooks the town, was built by a sum voted by the House of Assembly from the funds of the Treasury and cost upwards of 20,000l. It is built in the European style of architecture, and is universally considered the best building of the kind throughout the West Indies".

The building's original neoclassical aspect, as well as its stone construction, was directly influenced by the arrival of Loyalists from the southern United States in the 1780s. Previously most Bahamian buildings had been built of painted wood. Typically Bahamian elements, however, include louvred wood shutters and brightly painted exterior, in this case a brilliant shade of conch-pink. The primary façade, centred on a pedimented entrance supported by four stout Ionic columns, dates from the 1930s, when the building was remodelled following the hurricane of 1929.

The original Government House on this site was completed in 1737, as a home for Governor Richard Fitzwilliam. That building was supplanted by a neoclassical structure built between 1803 and 1806; Charles Cameron was the first governor to occupy it. This two-story incarnation measured more than 100 feet in length, and its primary façade, overlooking the harbour, was dominated by a full-length upper gallery supported by ten columns. In 1909 the east wing was added; the west wing is commonly known as the Windsor Wing, named for the Duke of Windsor, who was Governor from 1940 to 1945.

Government House was seriously affected by the hurricane of 1929. As a history recounts, "[T]he eastern wing of the Government House was unroofed on three sides and damaged to the extent that it was not fit for occupancy so major repair work had to be done to the roof and buildings". This restoration work, which included the removal of the original gallery and its replacement by the current temple-like entrance and cupola-topped roof, was completed in 1932.

The statue of Christopher Columbus, which stands at the harbourside entrance of the building, was reportedly designed in London by an aide to American novelist Washington Irving, a Columbus biographer. The 12-foot-tall representation was placed in front of Government House by Governor James Carmichael Smyth in 1830 and is "notable for its size rather than its artistry". As another observer wrote of the statue, "It is fortunate that the statue is labeled, for otherwise no one would ever guess that the swaggering, piratical-looking figure, with a slouch hat cocked rakishly on its head and a toga over its shoulder, is intended to represent Columbus".

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