An historian has made a last minute appeal to save one of Bermuda's most historically and architecturally valuable houses from demolition.

Former National Trust president Andrew Trimingham said he felt it was "a major tragedy'' that the Ridgeway property, on Berkeley Road, would be levelled to make way for the new Berkeley Institute senior school.

But Education and Acting Works and Engineering Minister Milton Scott said the demolition was unavoidable and added that steps were taken to preserve at least some aspects of the house's heritage.

Built in 1822, the house was recently discovered to be one of the last remaining slave-built structures where the names of the craftsmen who worked on it are known.

The property was known for its first 90 years as "Bellevue Mont'' and belonged to John Eve.

A research paper written by historian John Adams for Government's Historical Buildings Advisory Committee (HBAC) described the house as "one of the most stylishly sophisticated homes of pre-Emancipation Bermuda''.

It said the home's "handsome neoclassical woodwork'', carved by two of Eve's slaves, represented "the most sophisticated craftsmanship of the era'' on the Island.

Mr. Trimingham, the HBAC deputy chairman, said the committee, chaired by Government backbencher Neletha Butterfield, was unanimous in its request that the building be allowed to remain standing.

And he said he thought the construction of the new Berkeley Institute building was "almost pointless''.

"CedarBridge Academy was built as the secondary school for Bermuda. The name of Berkeley is just being continued for sentimental reasons.

"It's entirely understandable right now, but maybe it won't be for the next generation.'' He suggested the new facility be built around the Ridgeway so that the house was incorporated into the school.

"It's an architectural problem, but I don't think it's beyond Government's ability. That house ought to be saved and the school should be built around it. That would be, at least, a glimmer of preservation.'' The idea was echoed by Bermuda National Trust executive director Amanda Outerbridge, who said: "It's very distressing to see a building of this history being destroyed.

"It's really an irony that, in the name of education, one of the most rare and valuable sources of education is being destroyed.

"We hoped that it could have been incorporated somehow into the new school and the students could have a working relationship with an area of our history about which we have so little knowledge.'' But Sen. Scott branded the idea as impossible.

"We can't do that,'' he said. "If you look at the plans, then you'll see that you're not able to integrate any of the building into that level of excavation.'' He said: "It's unfortunate that it has to be done but it's just one of the realities we have to deal with. There just aren't any other sites on which we can build a senior school facility like this.'' Sen. Scott said a special survey, including documentation and photographing of the site, was conducted in the interests of preserving and restoring certain aspects of it "for posterity''.

End of a legacy: The 178-year-old Ridgeway House, on Berkeley Road, is slated to be bulldozed to make way for Berkeley Institute's new facility.

ENVIRONMENT ENV