Register with National Trust for vintage house relics

The National Trust is inviting people to register on their website to acquire pieces of two 20th-century buildings.

The old Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) building on Jerningham Avenue and the old colonial building which once housed the Centre for Communicable Disease, on Queen's Park East, are both owned by the Ministry of Health and are to be demolished for a new Ministry of Health headquarters.

Margaret McDowell, chairman of the National Trust, hoped the architecture of the PAHO building, would be saved, but the building was not incorporated in the plans and when demolition work began, scavengers stripped the building of the gate, galvanise and other material, causing damage to the interior.

However, the trust was able to salvage some pieces and they are available for the public to own.

The other colonial building, McDowell believes, will be demolished on Monday.

The trust is working with the contractor to remove the mouldings, floors made of Canadian pitch pine and encaustic tiles, which are patterned tiles made of different kinds of clay. The patterns fit together to make another bigger pattern on the floor.

When the pieces are removed they will be made available to the public. The trust is inviting people to register on its website for the pieces. Registration fee is $100 to cover the cost of the removal and transportation from the demolition site. A further donation to the trust is welcomed.

"We are working with the contractor to dismantle as many pieces as possible and available to people who want antique pieces of architecture. Send people to register their interest. Once they are registering their interest, we are cataloguing it as we speak with moulding, fret work, coins, tiles and wood."

Canadian-based TT artist Joshua Lue Chee Kong is among the people interested in acquiring the Canadian pitch pine floor. He asked on Facebook for people to help him remove the floor, and was liaising with the trust to get it done.

But McDowell said she didn't like the idea of people running out and taking things.

"If people want to salvage, they can register with us and we will arrange.”