Besa Vormatu-Dzelumadzekpo

Study Abroad/Student Enrichment

Univeristy of Virginia

School of Architecture and The Virginia Center for Digital Discovery

"Community as Classroom: Urban Studies and Service Learning in Cape Coast, Ghana."

The students worked on three projects:

• The Cape Coast Celebrties Project

• Developing Walking Tours of "Asafo Shrines"

• The Gothic House Design Project

Gothic House (Circa. 1870) Project

Gothic House is part of the cultural heritage of Cape Coast, Ghana. It lies just to the west of Cape Coast Castle and adjacent to historic Victoria Park. Built during the third quarter of the nineteenth century by a British merchant, Gothic House (the name implies the style of decoration—Gothic Revival) became the property of Jacob Wilson Sey in the 1890s. Sey, a prosperous wine tapper and founder of the Aborigines Rights Protection Society, transferred the property to the Gold Coast government before his death in 1905. It was during this time that Queen Victoria, a sympathetic supporter of Sey and of the Aborigines Rights Protection Society, abdicated a bill transferring title to all lands along the Gold Coast to the Crown. As a result, the Queen presented a bust of herself to a delegation representing the Gold Coast government. This bust was placed in a park adjacent to Sey’s Gothic House. In 1925 the bust was unveiled by Prince Edward, the grandson of the late queen, and the park commissioned. Today, Gothic House remains the property of the government of Ghana.

• The first period of construction probably consisted of the main dwelling, a garden to the west, the anterior courtyard, various ancillary structures and the underground cistern to the southeast (no longer in use). The main dwelling enclosed a modified hall and parlour plan, supported by extensive vaulted storage areas on the ground floor. Elaborate architectural details, loosely categorised as the Gothic Revival style, decorated the interior and exterior of the dwelling.

• The second phase of architectural change probably occurred during the first quarter of the twentieth century when the building served as a public/government office. At this time it is presumed that several changes occurred. First, timber additions, in the form of enclosed porches and rooms, changed the façades and rooflines of the dwelling. Second, original ancillary structures were demolished (one is intact in the northeastern anterior courtyard but is in poor condition) and replaced with a low-pitched one storey wing to the west and enlarged as a two-storey wing to the east. Third, the garden was transformed into a paved courtyard.