Union Estate (E)

An estate, originally 364 acres in size, located directly behind the village of Point Michele, now owned by the Pemberton family. Up to the 1860s it was a coffee and sugar estate owned by the Bremner family, the last being J.L. Bremner. In 1827 the estate was worked by 104 slaves who produced 36,500 lbs of coffee. Then it was bought over by T.P. Trail and Charles Beaurisseau, at which time it switched to producing only sugar. When Charles Beaurisseau died, a dispute over the land commenced between his widow and his son whereby the estate was the subject of a celebrated court case in the 1880s, Beaurisseau Vs Beaurisseau. By the early 20th century the estate was under Pemberton ownership. In spite of hurricane damage it still has one of the last existing wooden estate houses in Dominica, designed as a cube entirely surrounded by jalousie windows and built with all of the traditional facilities to withstand hurricanes, while at the same time allowing for excellent ventilation. These are design skills that today's builders have unfortunately abandoned.

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