The Tubman Center of African Culture is a concrete modernist building set on a low ridge overlooking the ocean at the edge of Robertsport. Built in the early 1960s under the presidency of William Tubman as a museum, library and cultural centre for the country's western region, it was a striking and ambitious project at the time — one of several signature buildings of Tubman's modernising era.
The civil wars left it gutted and looted, and it has stood empty ever since. The shell is open to the elements — you can walk inside, climb to the upper floor and look out through the empty window frames at the ocean. It is one of the most atmospheric ruins in Liberia, and a clear symbol of both what was lost and what the post-war reconstruction has yet to reach.