Ilaro Court
| Ilaro Court | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Edwardian, Italian, Caribbean |
| Location | Tweedside Rd., (Hwy 5), Two Mile Hill, St. Michael, Barbados |
| Current tenants | Freundel Stuart (2010–present) |
| Completed | 1919 |
Coordinates: 13°6′13″N 59°35′9″W / 13.10361°N 59.58583°W
Ilaro Court (pronounced: il'larō kôrt) is the official residence of the Prime Minister of Barbados. Ilaro Court was designed and built in the early 1920s by Lady Gilbert Carter, an American artist whose husband Sir Gilbert Thomas Carter was Governor of Barbados from 1904 to 1911. The name Ilaro was derived from a town in Nigeria where the Governor was stationed when he was an officer. This gracious mansion built of local coral-limestone successfully combines Edwardian, Italian, and Caribbean architectural features into a distinctive and individualistic whole; it boasts the first swimming pool in Barbados — in which Prince Edward the Prince of Wales bathed when he visited Barbados. The large, park-like garden has a gazebo, fishpond and orchid house.
The property was purchased in 1976 by the then Barbados Labour Party government under Prime Minister The Rt Hon. "Tom" Adams and was set to be a cultural centre; but the decision was made by the Cabinet to move the Prime Minister's residence from Culloden Farm where it had been under Errol Barrow and make Ilaro Court the official residence of the Prime Minister. The house was extensively refurbished throughout the early years of the 1980s and filled with antique furniture most of which had been made by the talented prisoners of the Glendairy prisons. In 1984 Tom Adams and his family moved into the residence officially and made it their home; unfortunately however, Tom Adams died a year later of a heart attack in the study.
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