Manuel Dias Liquor Store
Manuel Dias was a part of the group of Portuguese who migrated to Antigua after indentureship and bought this building in 1917. The family operated a general store before specialising in liquor. The building is a typical vernacular building with the residence upstairs and the shop at street level. The lower floor is brick masonry, with thick walls that keep the interior cool. Original shutters on the High Street side survive. Lignum Vitae wooden pegs, or trenails, suggest a date of around 1770.
The Dias family purchased the building from Foster and D. Hope Ross, merchants from St. Kitts, in 1917. This photo is from 1977.
In 1929, eight Portuguese businessmen, mostly shop owners, came together to purchase molasses in bulk and take greater control over rum production. The group included John R. Anjo, Joseph de Freitas, Manuel Dias, Emanuel C. Farara, Quin Farara, Emanuel Gomes, C. F. Joaquim, and John A. Vieira. They raised £2,500 in capital and by 1932 had formally established Antigua Distillery Limited.
A year later, in 1933, the distillery was built on leased land on Rat Island in St. John’s harbour, where it remains today.
The distillery’s first rum was sold by allotment to local rum merchants as unaged rum in casks and also as aged or matured rum, known as Caballero Rum. Each merchant blended and bottled the rum under a distinctive private label for sale in his rum shop. In 1947, in order to establish an identity for its own products, the distillery introduced its own label, Cavalier Muscovado Rum. A lighter variation of this rum is known today as Cavalier. English Harbour Rum, which comes as aged 5-year-old and 10-year-old, was introduced in 1994.