The home was built in 1906-8 on the cocoa estate originally known as Clearwater by Charles Meyer, on property bought by his father Fredrich Wilhelm Meyer in the Arima Valley. The first four of eleven children between Charles and his wife Julia Marie Pouchet were born at Springhill. The house was characterized by high ceilings, six rooms, with a hallway between the rear four, and a wide veranda overlooking the valley. However, his father's estates were confiscated in World War I by the Trinidad colonial government, since he was of German origin.