Excerpts from an address given by former Montego Bay Mayor, Shalmon Scott, at the Centre’s official opening on October 6.

The story of this civic centre is the story of Montego Bay and the Parish of St James. Always the hub of commerce, trade and social activities, this centre, standing on the ruins of the Albert George Market and the Vestry house/court house/parish council building of yesteryear, speaks to the indomitable will of a people — resilient, hospitable and driven to succeed.

Like the phoenix, this icon to good governance, aesthetic awareness and cultural harmony in diversity and creativity rises up out of the ash of a series of fires to inspire a people to persevere and to achieve. As the City’s motto states ‘progredimur ne pereamusn’- let us progress lest we perish.

Just over 200 years ago, in 1796, a year after the second Maroon War and just 20 years after our neighbours to the north, the USA acquired Republican status, the population of the parish of St James numbered 146. Yet, in 1804, the Corporation of Montego Bay and St James set about building this Vestry House as a monument to the new status that the capital of what was once one of the smallest and poorest of parishes had achieved.

This act was both significant and symbolic. It should be seen as a brilliant example of the exercise of local initiative and political autonomy — an act that supports the sobriquet of ‘The Republic’. This spirit of independence has always been strong among its citizens, pervading every thought and deed, even the air and the environment. No wonder then that the West has been the catalyst and the breeding ground for the issues and struggles of political autonomy, freedom and governance. The wisdom of the West has been a main ingredient in transforming the thoughts and dreams of our visionaries into realities.

Dominating the Square, then named Charles Square by the Honourable John Lawrence, Custos Rotulorum of St James, in honour of Governor Charles Knowles, the original building was completed in 1810 and became the civic, commercial and political centre of St James. The building housed the vestry offices and the regular court sessions such as the debtors’ court at which slaves were sold to pay the debts of their masters.

From the balcony, the planters and owners would review the slaves on parade, for sale. And it is from this balcony that the Proclamation of Emancipation was read on August 1, 1838.

This tradition has continued, so that even against the background of the blackened timbers of the razed building, proclamations of national and international import were still issued.

The upper floor of the Town Hall was used to host balls, plays and recitals. Receptions were held by the plantocracy to commemorate important events and to entertain visiting dignitaries.

In 1815, the Government moved the Cornwall County Assize Court to Montego Bay. The first sitting was held at the Court House in 1816. It was in this Court House in 1832 that the trial of Sam Sharpe, and hundreds of other slaves, who were accused in the slave rebellion of December 1831, was conducted. Sam Sharpe and the slaves who were found guilty were hanged in the Square and in the Albert Market. Sam Sharpe was tried at the Court House on April 19, 1832 and was hanged on May 23, 1832.

And what of the Albert Market? Built on the West African principles of commerce, and named after Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, the market provided the venue for the slaves to sell and barter their surplus produce. It also served as a social centre and meeting place for the slaves who were not allowed to congregate otherwise. Here, most likely, was where the slaves devised some of the strategies and plans for the Christmas Rebellion that finally forced the English to grant Emancipation in the British West Indies.

The Market once housed the town’s clock tower which, at one time, had at its extreme top a light beacon which was used to guide ships into the Montego Bay Harbour. The Courthouse and the Square have been rallying points throughout history. Charles Square, fittingly renamed Sam Sharpe Square in 1975, has hosted civic ceremonies. It has hosted political rallies, proclaiming ‘better must come’ and ‘money jingling in your pockets’, cultural festivals of dance, drama and song, religious revivals and missions, public educational events, demonstrations of one sort or another, and commercial activities both human and material. And once, the square was encircled by the main banks and stores of the town.

Many senior citizens still talk of Parade, the name once given to the Square as that was where the slaves were paraded before the sales. But there was another side to it. Here too was where the dignitaries and the gentry would stroll and the military would parade. So it had a dual meaning echoing the malevolent ominous past of human degradation and oppression as well as the pomp, pageantry and festivities of civic and civil society…

Like the Phoenix, as in a resurrection, the Civic Centre rises to tell a tale of our past and challenges us to a future of hope and prosperity where citizens of every walk of life will find opportunity to express themselves, to realise new hopes and aspirations. From the secret meetings in the Albert Market to the public proclamation, on May 1, 1981, of City status that affirmed our belief in ourselves to govern and to build, this Centre will be the whetstone to excellence and to good citizenship. It will be the venue for all our citizens, young and old to be inspired to fulfill their destiny and that of their country.

Today, we celebrate this as a milestone in the developmental process. The journey still continues.