T&T foreign ministry leaves historic Knowsley

The National Museum in Trinidad and Tobago is getting a new home. It is moving to the historic Knowsley Building which had been home to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for more than half a century.

Foreign Affairs will be relocated to the government campus on Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain.

The building has just been renovated as part of the government's refurbishment of buildings for the foreign ministry.

The multi-million investment in that ministry included the purchases of new buildings overseas including properties in New York and Toronto.

The refurbishment of Knowsley cost more than $20 million for the front and about $25 million for the back which includes a new wing.

The government bought Knowsley in 1956 for $250,000 and since then it has been used by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Foreign Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon told Newsday “the rationale is to have all the cultural centres located together in the same vicinity so you have the National Academy for Performing Arts.

"Then you’ll have the museum, and then the administrative buildings related to culture and the National Cultural Centre which is also planned.”

Gopee-Scoon told the paper the relocation to Knowsley will bring new life to the museum. She described Knowsley as a “wonderful historical building. The building in itself belongs to a museum.”