Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/201540
Today the churchyard is peaceful and quiet. Findlater, my vivacious, impeccably attired young tour guide, knows her history. Falmouth, 37 kilometres east of Montego Bay, is where slaves were freed and ships docked to fill their holds with sugar cane at what was once the busiest port in the Caribbean. It's a town that had running water before the city of New York did. It's also a living museum of classic Georgian architecture, a symmetrical style that proliferated throughout colonial Great Britain between roughly 1720 and 1840; character- 26 w e s t w o r l d p24-31_Jamaica.indd 26 >> ized by meticulously planned town squares and fountains, two-storey stone manors and civic buildings detailed with elaborate cornices and decorative moldings. Falmouth is also the capital of Trelawny parish, at one time the most productive district on the island for sugar cane. Today, it's better known as the birthplace of sprinting superstar Usain Bolt (legend has it that there's something special in the yams grown here that produces sprinting sensations like Bolt). I have come to Jamaica's north coast to explore a fascinating past, when sugar cane was king and Falmouth was the cultural and economic powerhouse of the Caribbean. The town's Georgian buildings are in various states of restoration, thanks to the ongoing efforts of the Falmouth Heritage Renewal society. After leaving the Baptist church, Findlater and I wander together along bustling streets. Two young men pass by and share an inside joke with my guide. "Friends salute me because they think I look like a police officer," she says. We pause across from Franco's Nice Time Bar, whose whitewashed exterior is punctuated by rickety wooden shutters on the windows. The dark interior has seats for a dozen or so souls. "It's the oldest bar in town. Upstairs there was a special room where sailors would go to sober up," Findlater says. Farther on, we pause outside the old military base, Fort Balcarres. An interpretive sign explains the fort's function to protect Falmouth "from Spanish and drunks." Next stop is the commanding courthouse. Though it's a replica of an original 1815 structure that was destroyed by fire in the 1920s, with its impressive four columns above the grand entranceway and mustardyellow-and-white paint job, it remains the pride of Falmouth. "The courthouse was the centre of Falmouth society," Findlater says as we climb the stairs for a view over the port. It still is. A trio of lawyers congregate on the steps, engaged in heated conversation, before Findlater distracts them from serious business. "Yeah mon," one of them says to Findlater and I, deploying that characteristic, laid-back, gender-neutral Jamaican greeting. They chat in colourful Jamaican patois, to which my ear is slowly becoming accustomed. When the lawyers step back into the courthouse, Findlater reverts to an idiom I can understand. Standing here in the early 1800s, one would have gazed out upon a harbour crowded with ships provisioning for the return voyage to the Old World. In modern times, a different kind of mariner is arriving – cruise shippers. In 2012, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines commenced docking at Falmouth after the completion of a U.S.$220-million joint venture with the Port Authority of Jamaica to build a cruise ship terminal, complete with shops and boutiques meant to emulate the Georgian style of the town's architecture. Today, a winter 2013 13-10-18 10:18 AM m u t s d i s d p t l a m B f p o d P h F m t h t s p t a C r P n s S b a n t t s " r t H l f B