Times of the Islands Winter 2022/23

astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
Palm Grove was the
name that the Benjamin
Charles Frith family gave
to their stately home on
Grand Turk just south
of Cockburn Town. It
was probably built in the
fourth quarter of the 19th
century, but exactly when
B.C., as he was called,
built Palm Grove, seems
to be a mystery.
B.C. Frith was born
in 1855 on Grand Turk
to Daniel Nichols Frith
and Jane Frith Butterfield.
Benjamin and his brothers
formed Frith Brothers
& Company, which at one
time was the largest producer
of salt on Grand
Turk. In addition to salt
This privately produced postcard of Palm Grove circa 1906 was made from a personal photograph that
would have been used by the Frith family. It shows the back of the house.
This photo illustrates Benjamin C. Frith, entrepreneur of Frith Brothers
& Company, a thriving business in Grand Turk in the late 1800s.
production, Frith Bros. & Co. were involved in growing
and processing sisal on West Caicos, mining guano on
Middle Caicos, and operating retail businesses selling all
manner of goods on Grand Turk.
B.C. inherited a coconut palm plantation from his
father on the north end of Grand Turk—northwest of
North Creek. It’s reported that Edmund Neale Coverley, a
shopkeeper and photographer on Grand Turk, managed
the plantation for B.C. The postcard on the opposite page
is evidence of this—it was produced by Coverley to sell in
his store and depicts his son among the coconut palms.
B.C., or his father, built a house on this property
that was known as “Little Bluff” or “The Summer House.”
The house was reported to have been a two story stone
structure that was used as a family get-away in the
summer—for the breezes and cooler temperatures.
Unfortunately, the coconut palms were wiped out by a
blight that swept through the Bahamas and West Indies
in the early 20th century.
In 1875, B.C. married Frances Elizabeth Streeter who
was living in Great Britain at the time. They had 13 children
on Grand Turk, however six died before their first
birthday. Frances died in 1910.
72 www.timespub.tc