La Sagesse Nature Centre

Grenada
Grenada
473-444-6458

Type: Sightseeing

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The main house of La Sagesse Nature Centre looks very much like one of the grand estate houses elsewhere on the island. It is younger than the old plantation houses, but its history is no less checkered. It was built in the 1960s by Lord Brownlow, one of the British aristocracy and cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, as his piedà-terre in Grenada. He already owned other properties in the Caribbean, notably in Jamaica and St. Lucia. His visits were few and far between, echoing the behavior of absentee landlords of West Indian estates in the previous two centuries. Though he expected his privacy to be respected, he nonetheless installed gates at his property line and refused local people access across his land to the beautiful La Sagesse Bay. Small wonder that, when the Peoples’ Revolution came about in 1979, it began at these gates. A mob stormed through and ransacked the house. It later became a temporary barracks for the Peoples’ Army. Lord Brownlow made no efforts to recover his property and the house started to go to ruin. In the late 1980s American art history specialist, Mike Meranski, was touring Grenada by motorbike and found La Sagesse and a new vocation at the same time. After negotiations, he became the new owner, restaurateur, hotelier and keeper of the La Sagesse Nature Centre. The most striking feature of the house is the external staircase leading to Mike’s personal apartment. It flows from the upper floor, a cascade in pink stone, like a lolling tongue. Many artists have tried to capture the look and feel of La Sagesse on canvas. These paintings are dotted around the main buildings of this delightful place.