Byllee Lang
Sculptor, teacher.
Born December 4, 1908

Byllee Lang was an established sculptor when she came to Bermuda for a six months’ vacation in 1945.  She fell in love with the island and made it her home in 1946. For the next 20 years, until her sudden death of a heart attack, she was an integral part of the arts scene.

Her studio was gathering place for people from all parts of the island. She taught and inspired a generation of artists, black and white, wealthy, working class and in-between. Generous with her time and talents, she waived fees for promising students who couldn’t afford to pay.

Best known for creating the reredos in the Anglican Cathedral, Lang also worked as a prize-winning window dress for A.S. Cooper's and created spectacular floats for the annual Floral Pageant. She always taught in integrated settings, even though schools elsewhere in Bermuda were segregated. Potter and sculptor Carlos Dowling, who worked as her assistant in the last years of her life in exchange for art lessons, said: “She truly did not see colour.”

Hamilton Hotel destroyed in fire of the century
December 22, 1955

How The Royal Gazette reported Bermuda's blaze of the century.

The “most spectacular and biggest fire” ever seen in Bermuda ripped through Hamilton Hotel three days before Christmas.

Hundreds got out of their beds and headed into Hamilton to watch the flames, streets were cordoned off and people evacuated from nearby buildings.

The fire blazed all night, and the building was totally destroyed. There were, however, no fatalities or significant damage to neighbouring buildings in the blaze The Bermudian called “Bermuda’s bonfire of the century.”

It was an ignominious end to a city landmark that had opened as Bermuda’s first major hotel in 1861, but whose importance had been eclipsed by newer hotels like the Princess. Hamilton Hotel had in fact become a white elephant and was not even operating as a hotel at the time of the fire.

Government had taken it off the Corporation of Hamilton’s hands 19 years earlier and moved  some of its departments including  Transport Control, Education, the Trade Development Board (forerunner of the Tourism Department) and Public Works into the building.

There were suspicions that arson was the cause, but the investigation was hampered by the widespread damage.

In January 1956, Parliament approved £11,5000 to be spent on demolition. In 1960, a brand-new Hamilton City Hall opened on the site.