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After the Dutch conquered the Island of Curaçao on the Spaniards in 1634 they built a fort called 'Amsterdam' on the eastbank of the St. Annabay, locally called 'Punda' or the 'Point' The development of the 'Other side' of the St. Annabay or 'Otrobanda' only began after 1700. The landing on the other side was called 'Water side', in Dutch 'Waterkant' or locally 'Awasa', which actually means 'Salt water'. Communication between Otrobanda and Punda originally took place by small boats or 'ponchi's'. Later also bigger ferryboats crossed the harbor entrance and in 1888 the first pontoon bridge, called after Queen Emma of the Netherlands, was inaugurated. In 1921 the 'Water side' square was paved and called after the Curaçao Admiral Luis Brion (1782-1821), who fought with Simon Bolivar against the Spanish colonizer of Central- and South-America. To the south Brion square is connected to the 'Molenplein' or 'Windmill square', called after the windmill 'de Vreede' or 'Peace', which was built there around 1733. The mill was already ruined in the year 1866, when the square was officially named after it. One of the most beautiful houses of its time was built on Molenplein and still exists as NR. 18-19. The elevation bordering Brion square to the west consisted of (from south to north): The St. Martinus Institution (a Roman Catholic nunnery, combined with a boarding school for girls and later an elementary and secondary school); The palace of the Roman Catholic bishop; Hotel Americano (former- ly Hotel Amicitia, Hotel Brion and Hotel Santo Domingo); Ice-parlour 'Summer Garden'; An extension of Hotel Americano, later house of a dentist and Bar with different names; Two residential houses, where later the office was built of the so called 'Gas Company' or 'O.G.E.M.', which used to supply electricity on the Island; The well-known general store 'Ellis & Dania', later 'Bar Moroco'; At the corner with Breedestraat between 1900 and 1969: 'La Elegancia', later 'Restaurant Tivoli', later 'Wonderbar' and 'Linder's Soda Fountain' and finally 'Tauber's Store'. To the north one could find a magnificent building with shops, apartments, offices and for instance the 'Singer Sewing Center'; next to this house a shop was built later and next to this 'Botica Brion', a drugstore, which later included the well-known 'Barbershop Jopie'. The American consul L. B. Smith built the first Queen Emma bridge. One had to pay to cross. However crossing was free for soldiers and barefooted people. |
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