1. The Woodbrook Youth Centre Conversations
and The French Connection
I lived opposite the Woodbrook Youth Centre for
over 20 years, but it took only minutes of my 1961
arrival in the place for me to recognize the
churchiness of the structure. I then assumed that
the building had been erected as a chapel on the
very site where it stands, and for some reason it
was turned over to the Youth Centre authorities to
house indoor sporting activities such as table
tennis, boxing and badminton.
The late Jefferson McKell corrected my
impressions. This is the story he told me, and I
paraphrase:
“There was this Anglican priest, I believe from
Tunapuna, who, in the early to mid-1940s, had
received permission from the City of Port of Spain
to use a parcel of the marginal lands south of
O’Connor Street for a youth sporting facility. The
priest then began to look around for materials to
build astructure on it.
“Around the same time, Catholic Archbishop of
Port of Spain Count Finbar Ryan was overseeing

2. the dismantling of St Mary’s College first chapel.
The old chapel was made of iron sheets bolted
together.
“The Anglican priest negotiated with Count Finbar
to take the dismantled chapel off his hands, and
then had it re-assembled on the Woodbrook lands,
on the southeastern bed of the Maraval River.
“The Anglican priest renamed it The Woodbrook
Youth Centre For The Youth of Port of Spain.”
Jefferson Mckell had been employed for most of
his working life at the Drafting and Architectural
Department of the City of Port of Spain. The job
gave him access to the plans of the Woodbrook
area and its colourful history.
In 2011, I wrote an article on Keith Smith that was
published in the Express newspaper. I included the
bit of the history of the Youth Centre as told to me
by Jefferson McKell. An editor, Lennox Grant,
deleted the bit of history because he could not find
anyone with authority on the subject to corroborate
it.
A year or so after my article was published, my
best friend, Ian Jonesy Montiel, a former St Mary’s
College student, undertook to meet Fr De Verteuil,

3. the historian priest, to get him to corroborate Mr
McKell’s story. About a week later, Jonesy called
me with the good news. This is what the historian
priest told him; I paraphrase again:
“The original Youth Centre building was indeed
the former St Mary’s College first chapel. The
chapel was built in France in the late 1800s and
shipped to Port of Spain in the early 1900s. It was
made of prefabricated iron sheets and arrived in
parts, that were then assembled together on site.”
I Googled “Images of St Mary’s College, Trinidad
and Tobago.” There for the world to see, was a
painting of the old chapel.
Besides France, the Youth Centre had other
international links. During the 1960s, Norwegian,
Swedish and Korean sailors, while their ships were
docked at the Port of Port of Spain, traipsed over
to the Youth Centre to play football.
We regulars would scramble a pick-up side and
play them games, usually for a fee. We were
possibly the first professional footballers in
Trinidad and Tobago.
We enjoyed home-ground advantage. That is, we
were familiar with the spots where the cows of

4. Lalloo Francis, the Centre’s custodian and
unofficial deputy warden, and his brother, had
deposited the Centre’s manure.
We never lost a game. All those mercenary
dealings were done out of earshot of the warden,
the statesmanlike Francisco Rodriguez.
During the 1960s, every time an American warship
docked at the port, some service men and women
would come to the Youth Centre carrying paint
and painting implements. Over days, they would
steel brush the Centre and repaint it from top to
bottom, inside and outside.
The strongest connection, though, rests with
France. We already know from Fr De Verteuil that
the Youth Centre was made in France. What we
might not know is the link the Youth Centre might
have with two of the most recognizable structures
in the world, the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of
Liberty.
France’s iron industry took off in the second half
of the 19th century. It was during that period
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, using wrought iron and
pig iron, cast iron and galvanized iron, constructed
his masterpieces. The two most famous are the

5. Eiffel Tower completed in 1889 and the Statue of
Liberty completed in 1886 (he builtthe statue’s
internal iron frame).
In 1875, he was also commissioned by the
Catholic Church to construct the church of San
Marcos in Arica, Chile. This he did without ever
stepping on Chilean soil. The church was an all-
metal prefabricated building, manufactured in his
factory in France and shipped to South America in
pieces to be assembled on site. The church still
stands today; and attracts its share of tourists.
Two years ago, my wife and I spent time in Paris.
One evening, before going up to dinner at the
Eiffel Tower restaurant I stood between its four
black iron legs. Running my sight along them
upwards to the tower’s pelvis, I saw similarities of
design to that of the Youth Centre—the sequence
of the bolts for example.
At the Paris-Gare de Lyon station, built in 1902,
again I saw in the roof structural similarities to that
of the Youth Centre. Eiffel’s style might have
influenced the station’s architect, given his
dominance then over France’s building industry.
Those were my observations. But it is left to the

6. historians to develop the full picture.
The following excerpt from an article written by
David Kier (See www.bajabound.com+reviews) is
as close as I could get to a corroboration of my
observations:
“Alexander Gustave Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower fame)
had designed a pre-fabricated metal church in 1884
as a prototype for missionary churches in France's
tropical colonies. Built in 1887 to be strong
enough to withstand severe tropical weather, the
church is made from galvanized iron. In 1889, the
church and the Eiffel Tower were put on display at
the Paris World's Exposition. Gustave won first
prize for the church's design.”
Here is another excerpt from another source (See
www.Flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/sets.../comme
nts/) :
“A novelty in Baja—or anywhere, for that
matter—is this prefabricated, iron-walled church
designed by famous French architect Alexandre
Gustave Eiffel in 1884. Eiffel, who earned his
reputation by designing locks for the Panama
Canal and the frame for the United States’ Statue
of Liberty, originally constructed this church in

7. France in 1887; it was intended as a prototype for
missionary churches built to withstand the climate
in France’s equatorial colonies. Two years later, it
was exhibited in Paris, together with the Eiffel
Tower, at the 1889 Paris World Exposition. Eiffel
took first prize for the church’s modular, tropics-
proof design.
"When a French official at Compañía El Boleo
later heard the church had been warehoused in
Brussels, he purchased it and had it shipped in
sections to Santa Rosalía, where it was
reassembled in 1897. The exterior is modern, even
minimalist, in tone, while the interior resembles
that of any Catholic church. Except for two side
wings added locally, the entire structure is made of
galvanized iron. The church is still very much in
use, with an Italian priest in residence.”
The Iglesia Santa Barbara De Santa Rosalia
Church in Baja Mexico, is almost identical in
structure to the original St Mary’s College first
chapel which, in its second life, became the
Woodbrook Youth Centre. Now, in its third
incarnation, more than 100 years old, it sits as the
front building of the Woodbrook Youth Facility.
Done “back to front,” the back of the chapel

8. became the front of the Youth Centre, and the front
of the chapel became the back of the Youth Centre.
The beautifully designed front door of the former
chapel is all but hidden from view by the towering
front wall of the unimaginatively designed
structure that houses the basketball court. What a
contrast of design!
Can I conclude then that the Woodbrook Youth
Facility’s authorities are oblivious of its pedigree?