Mensah Sarbah's House Destroyed

After first escaping demolition, the house of John Mensah Sharbah, one of the foremost legal brains in the Gold Coast, was not a second time lucky as it succumbed last Monday moving to nature. A downpour razed the over 200-year old historical edifice to the ground.

The house built in the 1800s was in January 2005 declared unfit for human habitation by the Cape Coast Municipal authorities who ordered its demolition. This was, however, stayed through the intervention of the chairman of the National Commission on Culture (NCC), Professor George Hagan, who promised to mobilise funds for its restoration.

This unfortunately did not happen until the rains flattered what had remained of the historic building which had already been earmarked as a world heritage site.