Balcony House Museum, Bahamas

[an error occurred while processing this directive] Balcony House Museum is a museum on Market Street, off Bay Street, in Nassau, Bahamas. As with many of the wooden colonial houses in the city, it is painted pink with white trimmings. Built in the 18th century, it got its name from the overhanging balcony upstairs supported by knee brackets.

The beauty of the Balcony House Museum lies in it preserving a snapshot of the past. The museum building is reflective of the architectural style adopted from southeastern United States. A stone kitchen is at the back of the house, detached from the main building.

Believed to have been built around 1788, the museum is probably the home of a Loyalist who fled mainland America during the American Revolutionary War, to settle in Bahamas which was under the British Crown. It is probably the oldest residential house in the Bahamas that is still intact.

In the mid 19th century, it became the home of Stephen Dillet, the first colored person to be elected to the Bahamas parliament. The house was acquired by the Central Bank of The Bahamas in 1985. The bank was instrumental in its restoration, working in partnership with the Department of National Archives. It was opened to the public as a museum in 1994.

The interior of the Balcony House Museum recreates the atmosphere of the home of a wealthy Loyalist in the late 18th century. It provides a glimpse into life during that part of the history of The Bahamas.

The Balcony House Museum is open Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm, and on Thursdays from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm. The museum is closed on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Admission is free but donations are welcome. To contact the museum, call 242-302-2621.

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Hello and thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy and my hobby is in describing places so that I can share the information with the general public. My website has become the go to site for a lot of people including students, teachers, journalists, etc. whenever they seek information on places, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore. I have been doing this since 5 January 2003, for over twenty years already. You can read about me at Discover Timothy. By now I have compiled information on thousands of places, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and I continue to add more almost every day. My goal is to describe every street in every town in Malaysia and Singapore.

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