Plantersrust
Situated at the end of the Roodeweg, Plantersrust — around 1852 well over 50 hectares in size — marked the edge of the city. It was also called Seru di Plantersrust or Seru di Roodeweg because it lay at the end of the Roodeweg and at the start of the road to the outlying districts with the plantations of the West Division.
The former plantaadje Zjaro, south-west of Plantersrust, alternately did belong to Plantersrust, as in 1853, and sometimes did not.
Plantersrust was used as a strategic base of operations during enemy raids: both the French and the English moved from the bays at Piscadera and Sint Michiel, plundering, through the surroundings of Seru Pretu to Plantersrust and the nearby Habaai. The English, who had landed at Piscadera on 1 January 1807, set up their headquarters in the house of pastor Pirovano at Zjaro and in the former dwelling house that once stood at Plantersrust. A camp was pitched on the Roodeweg in order to bombard the city from the nearby Ser'i Dòmi.
Baron van Raders
As a plantation, Plantersrust was alternately also merged with plantation Welgelegen, or Habaai. For example in 1828: Plantersrust, Habaai and Rust were then jointly owned by the fabulously rich Jeannette van der Meulen, who owned, among other things, various shipyards in the harbour. Around 1844 her son-in-law, Reinier Frederik Baron van Raders, was governor of the island. His aim was to make Curaçao as self-sufficient as possible, and on behalf of the government he bought Plantersrust from his mother-in-law to set up a model plantation here.
Military plantation
His adjutant was appointed overseer, and the government's enslaved people, free labourers and even soldiers were deployed as workers. Naval officers were sent abroad to gain knowledge of agriculture and crops. Thus experiments were carried out at Plantersrust with crops such as cotton, aloe, tobacco, various kinds of maize, peanuts, sunflower (as chicken and cattle feed), sisal and Johnson grass (cattle feed). Benzaden (moringa) was also sown in connection with Benolie (ben oil), which was used in perfumery and in fine instruments. In addition came coconut palms and even the costly cochineal cultivation, in which red dye was extracted from insects for the textile industry.
Much attention was paid especially to aloe at Plantersrust: the author Jaap van Soest mentions that in 1906 an experienced Aruban planter demonstrated at Plantersrust how an aloe field should be laid out, and he also built drip tanks and an oven. Aloe was then of importance mainly for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry in the United States. In times of sharp rises in aloe prices, even prisoners were deployed to breathe new life into the then neglected aloe fields at Plantersrust, Zjaro, Cas Chikitu and Kas Kòrá.
The successive harvests of various crops at Plantersrust failed, however, through, among other things, too little rain, caterpillar plague and cutbacks on labour.
According to van Soest it ultimately also turned out that the terrain at Plantersrust did not have the average characteristics of a Curaçao plantation after all, which is a requirement for an experimental plantation. The government plantation Plantersrust was sold, and in 1907 Cas Chikitu near Marchena was bought as an experimental plantation.
Military hospital
In 1892 a new military hospital was built at Plantersrust for 34,000 guilders, to replace the old hospital that was then housed in the present building of the Curaçao Museum. The new hospital was fitted out with spacious, airy wards, and in 1915 a new operating theatre was added too. In 1923, however, it was disbanded, and from then on military personnel were also admitted to the civilian hospital Sint Elisabeth.
The architect of the military hospital at Plantersrust is Antoine Martis, one of the first local and skilled architects, who also designed, among other things, the landhuis of Groot Davelaar.
At the start of the 1940s the government converted the former military hospital at Plantersrust into seven private dwelling units.
Kas di Awa
At Plantersrust also stood the first water and electricity plant of Curaçao. Leonard B. Smith, designer of the pontoon bridge, obtained a concession for electricity in 1893 after having carried out trials for it at Plantersrust, Juicio (Wishi) and Welgelegen. Because it was practical to combine electricity with water purification, he also applied for a concession for a water-purification factory. He himself fetched the necessary machines from the States, bought up the grounds between Wishi and Villa Maria at Plantersrust and had 5 deep wells dug that lie below sea level. At this location, diagonally opposite Panaderia Isa, between the road to Welgelegen and the Vogezenweg, the Kas di Awa (Water House) arose in 1895, with on a hill west of Plantersrust a reservoir of 350 cubic metres, enough at that time to supply the entire city.
Sources
- Renkema: Het Curaçaos plantagebedrijf in de 19e eeuw
- Soest: Olie als water
- Brenneker: Sambumbu, various editions
- US consul in the 19th century Curacao, the life and work of Leonard B Smith
With thanks to François van der Hoeven, Frensel Mercelina and André Rancuret.
