Bid to revive CK roundhouse moves ahead

A bid to restore a long disused roundhouse in Chalan Kanoa as a monument to the CNMI’s ancestral leadership is gaining momentum after the completion of a government survey last week and a pending conference Friday aimed at crafting the project’s design.

The proposed monument, an initiative begun by the Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council, would transform an historic roundhouse near the Chalan Kanoa post office into the “First Leadership Memorial Courtyard,” according to a July 29 letter sent by Antonia Tudela, chairwoman of the council, to government officials praising the Department of Lands and Natural Resources’ help in surveying the site.

The proposed project comes as the council is developing a plan to revitalize the Chalan Kanoa neighborhood, according to council adviser William Torres, who noted the area is considered the ancient capitol of Saipan and that the roundhouse itself once served as a focal point for the island’s cultural and political life.

“In the distant past, the roundhouse was a very popular gathering place, whether it was for markets for political debates,” Torres said in an interview Wednesday. “This project is history in the remaking.”

Now that the government survey of the site is complete—a key step for the council’s effort to win an approval from the Department of Public Lands for the project to move forward—the process of designing and planning the monument can begin, Tudela writes. The council hopes to have an official designation from DPL giving them the go-ahead sometime next month, she says.

Given that the council has yet to design the monument, Torres noted it has yet to formulate any funding plans or an assessment of the project’s costs. However, the council later this week is meeting to “brainstorm ideas on how to conceptualize the monument in order to reflect its history.”

The monument site is a key historical landmark and will remain open to the public under the council’s care, according to a previous June 17 letter Tudela sent to DLNR.

The roundhouse “has served as a place of fellowship gathering and has served for and catered to different public functions over the years, including political assembly and campaigns,” Tudela writes. “It is this aspect of history that has significant relevance to our political development as an island nation that makes this endeavor important to the people of Saipan, and which the council would like to dedicate, preserve, protect and enhance whatever is left of the facility for a memorial display of local leadership.”