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The National Palace (french: Palais National; ht, Palè nasyonal) was the
official residence
An official residence is the House, residence of a head of state, head of government, governor, Clergy, religious leader, leaders of international organizations, or other senior figure. It may be the same place where they conduct their work-relate ...
of the
President of Haiti
The president of Haiti ( ht, Prezidan peyi Ayiti, french: Président d'Haïti), officially called the president of the Republic of Haiti (french: link=no, Président de la République d'Haïti, ht, link=no, Prezidan Repiblik Ayiti), is the head ...
, located in
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...
, facing Place L'Ouverture near the Champs de Mars.
It was severely damaged during a
devastating earthquake in 2010.
The ruins of the building were demolished in 2012 under the Martelly administration, and plans to rebuild the palace were announced by then president
Jovenel Moïse
Jovenel Moïse (; ; 26 June 1968 – 7 July 2021) was a Haitian entrepreneur and politician, who served as the 43rd President of Haiti from 2017 until his assassination in 2021. He was sworn in as president in February 2017 after winning the ...
in 2017.
History
Background
![Seconde Palais National Haiti](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Seconde_Palais_National_Haiti.jpg)
A reported total of four residences built for the country's rulers, whether the colonial governor general, king, emperor, or president, have occupied the site since the mid to late 18th century. At one point in the site's tumultuous history, when the chief of state was without an official home due to damage, a 19th-century French-style villa on Avenue Christophe assumed that role.
[John Dryden Kuser, ''Haiti: Its Dawn of Progress After Years In a Night of Revolution'' (Richard G. Badger/The Gorham Press, 1921), page 16]
The earliest structure was the Government Palace (Palais du Gouvernement), which was constructed in the 18th century as the residence of the French governor general of
Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue () was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city in the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer ...
. Its first Haitian inhabitant was the country's first president of Haiti, General
Alexandre Pétion
Alexandre Sabès Pétion (; April 2, 1770 – March 29, 1818) was the first president of the Republic of Haiti from 1807 until his death in 1818. He is acknowledged as one of Haiti's founding fathers; a member of the revolutionary quartet that ...
. The structure was deemed "nothing less than a palace", made of painted wood, with "a handsome flight of steps leading into good reception-rooms". A visitor in 1831 noted the building was "large and convenient, but not handsome. It is of one story, and situated in front of the parade, to the southeast of the town. Its entrance is up a fine flight of steps, leading through a spacious portico into the hall of audience. The floors of all the public rooms are of black and white marble. The furniture is tasteful and elegant, but not costly. This building ... was constructed with more attention to convenience than effect. The apartments are pleasantly cool." In front of the palace stood the marble tomb of President Pétion and one of his daughters.
By 1850 the former governor general's residence had become known as the Imperial Palace, since it was the residence of Emperor
Faustin I of Haiti
Faustin-Élie Soulouque (15 August 1782 – 3 August 1867) was a Haitian politician and military commander who served as President of Haiti from 1847 to 1849 and Emperor of Haiti from 1849 to 1859.
Soulouque was a general in the Haitian Army ...
and his wife, Empress
Adélina.
John Bigelow
John Bigelow Sr. (November 25, 1817 – December 19, 1911) was an American lawyer, statesman, and historian who edited the complete works of Benjamin Franklin and the first autobiography of Franklin taken from Franklin's previously lost origina ...
, an editor at the ''
New York Evening Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established i ...
'', visited the palace in 1850 and described it as "only one story, raised a few feet from the ground, and approached by four or five steps, which extend all around the edifice." He also noted aspects of the interior decoration: "The floor
f one waiting roomis white marble, the furniture in black hair-cloth and straw. On a richly carved table appeared a beautiful bronze clock, representing the arms of Haiti—namely, a palm-tree surrounded with fascines of pikes and surmounted with the
Phrygian cap. The walls were decorated with two fine portraits ... One represents the celebrated French conventionist, the
Abbé Grégoire
''Abbé'' (from Latin ''abbas'', in turn from Greek , ''abbas'', from Aramaic ''abba'', a title of honour, literally meaning "the father, my father", emphatic state of ''abh'', "father") is the French word for an abbot. It is the title for lowe ...
, and the other the reigning Emperor of Haiti .... The latter does honor to the talent of a
mulatto
(, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese is ...
artist, the Baron Colbert." An adjoining salon, where "grand receptions are given," displayed "portraits of all the great men of Haiti".
The former Imperial Palace was destroyed on 19 December 1869 during a revolt that brought down the government of President
Sylvain Salnave
Sylvain Salnave (February 6, 1827 – January 15, 1870) was a Haitian general who served as the President of Haïti from 1867 to 1869. He was elected president after he led the overthrow of President Fabre Geffrard. During his term there were cons ...
.The building was bombarded during the conflict by the man-of-war ''La Terreur'', a government warship that had been captured by the rebel forces. As a contemporary report stated, "It appeared that Salnave had stowed away in vaults at the Palace a large quantity of ammunition. The shells fired from the ''Terreur'', penetrating these vaults, caused several terrific explosions, and the palace was wholly destroyed".
The palace's replacement was built in 1881. The ''
National Geographic Magazine
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
'' called the palace "a rather ugly structure of glistening gray white, with apparently a good deal of corrugated iron about it," though adding that it "contained, however, some fine lofty rooms". Others called it "a low straggling house" whose rooms were "pretty and decorated à la française".
The replacement palace was seriously damaged on 8 August 1912 by a violent explosion that killed President
Cincinnatus Leconte
Jean Jacques Dessalines Michel Cincinnatus Leconte (September 29, 1854 – August 8, 1912) was President of Haiti from August 15, 1911 until his death on August 8, 1912. He was the great-grandson of Jean-Jacques Dessalines—a leader of the Ha ...
and several hundred of his soldiers almost a year to the day from Leconte's election. As was the case with President Salnave's 1869 death, "the President had been unable to trust anyone with the keeping of the national supply of ammunition and was forced to keep it in his own palace, so that in both cases the Presidents were killed by means of their own powder".
Design
The National Palace most recently occupying the site was designed in 1912 by
Georges Baussan
Georges Baussan (1874 – 1958) was a Haitian architect. He worked in Port au Prince. His most famous work was the design of the National Palace of Haiti in 1917 which won an international competition. He died in 1958 at the age of 82.
Referen ...
(1874–1958), a leading Haitian architect who graduated from the Ecole d'Architecture in Paris and whose commissions included the City Hall of Port-au-Prince and Haiti's Supreme Court Building.
[Ruth Danenhower Wilson, ''Here is Haiti'' (Philosophical Library, 1957), page 47] He was a son of a former Haitian senator and the father of Robert Baussan, an architect who studied under
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
and later became the country's Undersecretary of State for Tourism.
Baussan's classical design was chosen from a range of plans submitted by Haitian and French architects in a national competition in 1912. His entry was awarded the second-place prize but also was selected to be the new National Palace, for financial reasons—the structure proposed by the first-place winner was deemed too costly. The construction budget for the new palace was set at $350,000 and work began in May 1914. By 1915, however, the under-construction palace was set ablaze by a mob that ousted and assassinated President
Vilbrun Guillaume Sam
Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam (4 March 1859 – 28 July 1915) was President of Haiti from 4 March to 27 July 1915, when he was assassinated. He was a cousin of Tirésias Simon Sam, Haiti's president from 1896 to 1902.
Early life and education
C ...
. A contemporary news report stated the palace "has been partially destroyed after an early-morning attack which lasted several hours". After President Sam's death, the country was
occupied by the United States, with U.S. forces taking possession of the palace and U.S. naval engineers overseeing its completion. The building was finished in 1920.
John Dryden Kuser
John Dryden Kuser also known as Dryden Kuser (September 24, 1897 – March 3, 1964) was a New Jersey politician and a member of an influential New Jersey family. He was the son of Colonel Anthony R. Kuser and grandson of Senator and Prudenti ...
, a wealthy American who visited Haiti in January 1920, described the new National Palace as "a huge structure, quite like a palace in appearance .... It is more than twice the size of our White House and is shaped like the letter E, with the three wings running back from the front. In the main hall huge columns rise to the ceiling and at each side a staircase winds up to the second floor". The primary rooms, Kuser noted, including the office of the president, were all about 40 feet square.
Like other public buildings in Haiti, Baussan's National Palace drew on the tradition of
French Renaissance architecture
French Renaissance architecture is a style which was prominent between the late 15th and early 17th centuries in the Kingdom of France. It succeeded French Gothic architecture. The style was originally imported from Italy after the Hundred Years ...
and greatly resembled structures erected in France and its colonial territories during the late 19th century, such as the
Saigon Governor's Palace
The Saigon Governor's Palace (french: Palais du Gouverneur, Saigon), also known as the Norodom Palace and then renamed Independence Palace, was a government building in Saigon, French Cochinchina, built between 1868 and 1873.
It contained the res ...
, the residence of the French governor general of
Cochinchina
Cochinchina or Cochin-China (, ; vi, Đàng Trong (17th century - 18th century, Việt Nam (1802-1831), Đại Nam (1831-1862), Nam Kỳ (1862-1945); km, កូសាំងស៊ីន, Kosăngsin; french: Cochinchine; ) is a historical exony ...
. Made of white-painted reinforced concrete, the two-story National Palace had a central section featuring a domed entrance pavilion whose four
Ionic columns
The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite or ...
supported a pedimented
portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...
; at either end of the main façade were matching domed pavilions, also groined.
[President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...]
, were at their private residence in another part of Port-au-Prince.