Richard Spurling grew up in Saint George’s. The east end has always been close to his heart—and history something he has always been fascinated by. As a boy he would collect eighteenth-century military buttons. He moved on to coins, and later antiques. Now he collects stories, which he brings to life at Carter House, a meticulously preserved seventeenth-century Bermuda house on the south side of St. David’s Island.
Packed, quite literally, to the rafters, Carter House brings the unique history, culture and legacy of St. David’s and its inhabitants to life through storytelling, events, artifacts and architecture. As president of the St. David’s Historical Society, Spurling is the curator, fundraiser and marketeer for “Bermuda’s biggest small museum,” as he refers to it, which he runs pretty much single-handedly with the help of an active board and two docents.
Spurling established the St. David’s Historical Society in the late 1990s when, as an MP for St. David’s, the Bermuda National Trust approached him about the caretaking of Carter House after the US military base was disbanded. The society negotiated a lease with the Bermuda Land Development Company and raised the $150,000 needed to restore the historic building, which they decided to turn into a museum dedicated to the history of St. David’s Island. At the time it was a completely lost history.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever started a museum from scratch, but it boggles the mind,” says Spurling. “We had absolutely nothing, but we started to put together pictures and stories.” Today, the museum houses hundreds of artifacts relating to life in old St. David’s, the garden has been replanted with endemics, and the grounds also house a reimagined, and historically accurate, settler’s cabin, built in 2012 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Bermudians. “We are a historical conservation site,” he says.
“We say arrive curious, and leave enchanted,” Spurling explains, of the unique approach which blends nature, history and culture. “The importance of knowledge drives us. Not knowledge by itself, but with curiosity and imagination, which is what makes it meaningful.” A strong focus is placed on the importance of community and nature, which are at the heart of both the African and Native American cultures that shaped life in St. David’s.
“I want to create a respect for nature and its importance to community and to our lives,” says Spurling of the legacy he hopes to leave at Carter House. “I try and encourage people to see more than just what they’re looking at.”
