Upper St Mary’s Street
The upper part of St. Mary’s Street had a number of elegant residences, particularly those along East Street (now Independence Avenue). This photo shows the corner of St. Mary’s Street and East Street (now Independence Avenue) in about 1930.
The photo below, from the 1940s, shows George Bennett-Bryson’s home at the top of St. Mary’s Street. Geo. W. Bennett & Co., which became George W. Bennett Bryson & Co. in 1895, was the largest and most prosperous commission/retail merchant and shipping agent in Antigua in the late 19th and early 20th Century. Bryson’s had a monopoly on shipping sugar and also moved into insurance, hardware and lumber sales, opening a supermarket (in about 1930), and acquiring a fleet of lighters and inter-island schooners. Brysons became a launching pad for a cohort of small shopkeepers, men who became heads of departments and then left to start their own stores (sometimes sending their wives ahead).
