Groot Kwartier is a neighbourhood of

Willemstad Willemstad ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean Sea that is a Countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was the cap ...

Curaçao Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela. Curaçao includ ...

, a

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, forming part of the West Indies in Caribbean, Caribbean region of the Americas. They are distinguished from the larger islands of the Greater Antilles to the west. They form an arc w ...

island in the

Dutch Caribbean The Dutch Caribbean (historically known as the Dutch West Indies) are the New World territories, colonies, and countries (former and current) of the Dutch Empire and the Kingdom of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea, mainly the norther ...

. It is better known as Emmastad, a villa ward built by

Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...

for its employees. Emmastad is officially part of Groot Kwartier.

History

Groot Kwartier started as a plantation in 1694. The plantation produced bananas, divi-divi and livestock, but was mainly known for its large fresh water supply. In 1915, the nearby plantation Asiento was bought by

. Initially the grounds were used as a harbour. In 1923, neighbourhoods were built on Groot Kwartier to house employees hired from other Caribbean islands. In 1929, the area owned by Shell was renamed Emmastad. Between 1945 and 1955, Emmastad was enlarged with residential neighbourhoods for the Dutch employees of Royal Dutch Shell. The houses constructed during that period were luxurious, free-standing villas. Emmastad was a segregated and

gated community A gated community (or walled community) is a form of residential community or housing estate containing strictly controlled entrances for pedestrians, bicycles, and automobiles, and often characterized by a closed perimeter of walls and fences ...

where blacks and coloureds were only allowed entry with a special pass. In the 1960s, Shell started selling the houses. Emmastad is no longer segregated, and has become a popular neighbourhood for the middle class, however the older parts of Groot Kwartier are poorer.

References

Bibliography

* Populated places in Curaçao Willemstad {{Curacao-geo-stub