r/NassauBahamas

Nestled quietly on Market Street is a little pink house that is easy to walk past, but it might be the oldest thing still standing in Nassau that a person actually lived in.

Balcony House is the oldest existing wooden residential building in The Bahamas, and the name comes from exactly what you'd guess, the white balcony running along the front. Look at how it's held up though. It's supported by wooden knee braces, a signature 18th century architectural feature, not by posts running down to the ground. That free standing design is part of what makes it architecturally significant rather than just old.

The exact build date is genuinely uncertain. Sources put it anywhere from the 1770s to around 1788 to about 1790, with the strongest evidence being a Nassau map from 1788 that shows a structure on the site. Nobody has a construction record. What everyone agrees on is that it went up during the Loyalist period, when settlers fleeing the American Revolution were building out the town.

The best and my favorite detail is inside.

The mahogany interior staircase came from a 1700s wrecked ship, immaculately well preserved and it's not the only salvaged piece. The house still contains original windows, rare L shaped door hinges, doorknobs, locks and keys, and even the original hooks that held the hammock that used to swing on the balcony.

Here's the part that should be the headline though. In the mid 1800s, this house was the residence of Stephen Dillet. In 1833, he became the first coloured person in Bahamian history to win an election, representing the Town of Nassau, and he went on to win seven consecutive elections. In 1851 he was appointed Post Master General as well as Inspector of the Police Force, at that time the highest ranking position in the Force. He was also a leading figure in freemasonry, heading what is now the Royal Victoria Lodge.

Sit with the timing on that.

Dillet won his seat in 1833, the year before the Emancipation Act took effect. A Black man was elected to represent Nassau in the House of Assembly while slavery was still legal in the colony, and he then held the seat through seven elections and rose to the top of the police force. That's not a footnote, that's a foundational figure in Bahamian political history, and his house is sitting there on Market Street with free admission and most people have never heard his name.

One small thing that adds to it. Market Street used to be called Prison Lane. So the first Black elected official in the country was living on a street named for the jail that's now the Public Library.

After that, the guest book gets interesting in a completely different way. In 1947 the property was leased to the Hon. William Maxwell Aitken, Baron of Beaverbrook, the press baron and wartime British cabinet minister. It was later sold to Mrs. Marie Josephine Bryce, an American heiress to the A&P food store chain, who hired the New York design firm Grace Richards Inc. to redo the interior. By the mid 1970s she had stopped visiting and left the house in the care of her maid, Mrs. Rosalie Armbrister. Her husband was Ivar Bryce, Ian Fleming's lifelong friend, which is how Fleming's Bentley ended up shipped there in 1955.

The Central Bank of the Bahamas acquired it in 1985, restored it, and it opened as a museum in 1994.

Admission is free and if you've got a spare 20 minutes downtown, this is a better use of them than another lap around the straw market.

You're standing in the house of the man who broke into Bahamian government a year before emancipation, on a staircase that used to be part of a 1700s ship.

The official advisories recommend increased caution, but they do not tell tourists to avoid downtown Nassau completely.

The United States currently lists The Bahamas at Level 2, which means travellers should exercise increased caution. Its advisory states that most crime occurs in Nassau and Freeport and specifically warns visitors to remain alert in the Over-the-Hill area south of Shirley Street. It also raises separate concerns about vacation rentals, jet skis and boating activities.

That warning should not be dismissed, but it should be understood geographically.

A crime reported as happening in Nassau did not necessarily happen beside Parliament Square, on Bay Street, inside the Straw Market or near the cruise port. Nassau may refer to the city, the wider urban area or, informally, almost anywhere on New Providence.

The United Kingdom’s travel guidance makes the practical distinction more clearly. It advises visitors not to walk outside the main tourist areas and beaches, especially alone. It then specifically recommends staying in downtown Nassau, where there are regular police patrols, and avoiding unlit areas or travelling alone after dusk.

The message is not that tourists cannot walk through downtown.

The message is that visitors should know where they are, understand when they have left the tourism district and avoid wandering through unfamiliar areas without a reason or destination.

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For more tips on safety etc see this article: https://riseliftingothers.com/is-nassau-bahamas-safe-for-tourists/

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Yes, downtown Nassau is generally safe for tourists during the day when they remain aware of their surroundings and stay within the main visitor areas.

I do not say that as someone looking at Nassau through a resort window. I regularly walk through downtown with visitors as a local guide.

During the day, police officers patrol the area on foot, bicycles, Segways and in different types of vehicles. Their presence is visible throughout the tourism district.

The physical layout of downtown also makes fast movement difficult. Many streets are narrow, and much of the traffic is directed through one-way routes. Between taxis, buses, delivery vehicles, cruise passengers and regular local traffic, nobody is making a quick escape through downtown Nassau during the middle of the day.

None of this means that crime is impossible. There is no city in the world where a police presence can guarantee that nothing will happen.

It does mean that downtown Nassau is not an abandoned or unregulated district where tourists are left to fend for themselves.

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For more tips on safety etc see this article: https://riseliftingothers.com/is-nassau-bahamas-safe-for-tourists/