Siegert Square

Named after the Siegerts, an entrepreneurial German family that owned a sugar factory that once stood in the same place as the square, and also the surrounding Sugar Cane Estate. The family sold the Woodbrook Sugar Cane Estate they owned to The Port of Spain Town board in January of 1911 with an added stipulation that their family's connection to the estate be preserved. At their request, nine streets were named after family members around Woodbrook: Cornelio, Carlos, Alfredo, Luis, Alberto, Rosalino, Ana, Petra and Gallus Streets.

Dr Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert (1796-1870), the family's patriarch, had migrated to Venezuela during their fight for liberation and became Surgeon General of the town of Angostura (now Ciudad Bolivar) in the Orinoco. In 1824 he created a herbal concoction called Angostura Bitters using tropical herbs and plants which became quite popular. Due to political turbulence he migrated to Trinidad in 1875, where he started a small factory at Marine Square with his sons Carlos, Alfredo and Luis run by their company Dr. J.G.B. Siegert & Hijos. This company became Angostura Bitters (Dr. J.B.B Siegert & Sons) Limited on August 30th 1921 and finally Angostura Limited in 1992. It was from the profits of his concoction that the family was able to acquire enough money to purchase Woodbrook estate in 1899 from W. F. Burnley of Scotland. Angostura Aromatic Bitters is still very much a popular commodity and sold worldwide.

Community events are held in this lush green park. There are a few scattered benches and streetlights along pathways that wind throughout the small park. In 2011, a plaque celebrating the 100th anniversary of Woodbrook was unveiled in the square.