Drax Hall
No
one knows for sure, but it is generally believed that Drax Hall was built by the
brothers William and James Drax in the 1650's. The brothers built Drax Hall as
one of the earliest and biggest sugar properties in Barbados. They were a wealthy
and well connected family that had a special love for Barbados. There were others
like them, for Barbados prospered with sugar and its plantation owners held considerable
influence at home and abroad.
It is classic Jacobean architecture, with steep gable roofs, corner finials, casement
gable windows and a Jacobean staircase with its carved hall archway of mastic
wood.
St. Nicholas Abbey in St. Peter and Drax Hall in St.
George, two of the oldest buildings in Barbados, both built in the 1650's, stand
as proud examples of the Jacobean tradition. Drax Hall is the oldest surviving
Jacobean mansion in the Western Hemisphere. Only three of these mansions exit
in the Western World, and it is Barbados' good fortune to have two of these treasures.
The only other remaining structure being Bacon's castle in Virginia, U.S.A.
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