Amar Sheow Art Collections

Cayman Islands Heritage

This gallery showcases old time architecture, institutions, monuments & structures of significant & historical importance in the Cayman Islands. The old homes are fast disappearing off the landscape as progress & development advance. In early days, dwellings were owner-built with physical help from the village/community. Traditional materials used were wood from native ironwood, mahogany trees & thatch palm fronds. "Wattle and daub (a 6000 years old method) was also utilized; it is a composite building material used for making walls, in which woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of a combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw, and boiled limestone from cliffs and Ironshore similar to how early plaster work was done in North America. Another popular type of home is a Caribbean interpretation of Victorian architecture; it was a more upscale structure than wattle & daub created by & for the UK colonials in the Cayman Islands & the British/West Indies & colonies in the western Hemisphere. Colonial Administration buildings were built to a significant thickness of stone ( likely arrived in ships as ballast) & of local limestone. Some buildings feature ship-like architecture/ design influenced by Cayman's seafaring heritage.