Rambarran told the Chronicle that the street was named after William Pitt who had developed it into a business area in the 1900’s because of its close proximity to the Municipal Market.

Some 19 businesses on Pitt Street were destroyed earlier this month when fire swept through the New Amsterdam shopping area. About 150 persons were left without jobs.

In the earlier years, the premises were neatly fenced and had bridges which led to their interior.

According to the former teacher, Portuguese and Syrians dominated the scene, but there were a few Chinese and Indians as well.

But the Syrian hucksters, he said, took their merchandise to people’s homes, and sold them in wholesale quantities.

In the 1923 fire, a young mother and her two children perished when she attempted to retrieve her cash from a burning building.

Rambarran said Ferrell subsequently reopened business, and during the following year, another jeweller, Jaichand Diyaljee, from Bombay, India, opened in one of the small buildings rebuilt by the Hikel’s on the burnt site.

Many of the other rebuilt buildings were used as Chinese restaurants, but these changed hands with the passing years.

By the early 1940’s the tenants from the eastern half of Pitt Street from Strand, were Sue Ho, and above his business were Budhu’s Boarding House, George Bahadur, Rambharrack, Gajadhar Singh, Diyaljees, Robert Rampersaud, Jacob Hanoman and later Harry Hanoman, J.N. Annamanthadoo, Latchana, Hughes Drug Store, Thelma Rambarran, Chinapen and at the head, Mendoncas.

The southern block on the main road was occupied by another Mendoncas outlet, Nicholas George (one of the town’s finest dry goods stores), Carrington’s Jewellery Store, Juman Bacchus Boarding House, Ahmad Hoosein called ‘Tailor Man’, Peter M. Loo Restaurant, now known as Petma Loo’s, Mark’s Tinware and Garage, the Palm Beach Store, Juman Bacchus Parlour, Foonoo and Boyce Bacchus, J.Z. Bacchus, George Hanoman, the Cosmopolitan Store owned by Cecil Bahadur, and the businesses previously occupied by the La Bennetts changed hands with Milton Persaud.

Pitt Street also known as ‘Market Lane’ also had accommodations for Seecharrans’s Barber Shop, David Jankie’s Barber Shop, Chen Pen’s Cook shop, Daniel and Moses Moakan, Milton Griffith, George Eadie, David Singh, Smally’s Restaurant and Parlour, Bacchus’s King Sailor Barber shop and Bass Eddo’s Jewellry Shop.