Port Louis – La Chaussee – 1890s – Far West – Mauritius
Chaussée Street (La Chaussée) and its surrounding plots were initially marshy lands during the french period and later on converted to usable areas. Needless to say in those days how horse carriages and animal-driven transport, and also human-driven carts were the only means of urban transport. It is true the railways existed but these followed a different line, covering distant regions primarily.
La Chaussée, from its name, was designated and established initially as a direct access from the Barracks to the Government House, reason of which we can see how this road leads from the Barracks doors to the front of the Government House. In those days, the buildings we can see were all of wood and more than one time it happened that a little fire spread and devastated a whole street. The picture was a little before the great fire of 1892, after which all those buildings were then replaced by stone. Below we can see the remains after the fire. Courtesy: Tailor Smith family
It sure does look that in those days everything looked like the far west, even how people dressed. Even today when we take a look closely of what remains in La Chaussée, we can still see some old colonial buildings that sometimes we tend to ignore due to being too acquainted to the city (or not). Below is one of the buildings we can still see standing and dating back since very long.
Port Louis – La Chaussee Street – Colonial Building of the Mauritian Past – 2014
