CHAPELTON, Clarendon — It holds the distinction of being the first capital of Clarendon and decades ago was a major business hub in south central Jamaica, but today this sleepy, historic town appears to be struggling to find its economic relevance.

Situated in the hilly interior in Clarendon’s north-central region, Chapelton is home to the parish’s oldest high school, 71-year-old Clarendon College, and the second oldest church, St Paul’s Anglican. There are also other buildings and monuments of historic value.

But in terms of conventional business development and entertainment, Chapelton seems to have very little going for it at the moment.

“Chapelton reminds me of The Hague in Holland,” Albert Samuel Jackson, a 78-year-old retired science teacher who has lived in Chapelton his entire life, told the Jamaica Observer recently.

“It has a lot of important and historical sites, but it is not the main economic hub. It is a quiet place where you can relax. It’s for retired people,” Jackson added.

To those who come and go, Chapelton, in terms of physical infrastructure, looks much the same as it did years ago. A vintage police station — sandwiched between the market house on the right, the all-age school and the 347-year-old Anglican church on the left — is strategically placed on top of a slope in the centre of the town, overlooking a chain of stores and shops, among which a pharmacy and the town’s lone commercial bank sit.

On the narrow strip of road leading to Clarendon College, there is the new courthouse, renovated revenue centre and the People’s Cooperative Bank.

The hospital — situated on a steep hill in the first left turn on the main road — the library and the post office can be found on entering the town.

Amidst all of this, there is the clock tower — policed by a bust of Captain Cudjoe of the Maroons — standing tall in a small recreational park as the town’s guardian.

One of the shops overlooked by the police station in the town centre is owned by Jackson. To him, Chapelton has changed much. But he does not believe the change from hustle and bustle to sleepy and restful is necessarily for the worse.

One constant, he says, is Clarendon College which has continued to keep some level of commercial activity going.

“At the moment, there would not be a Chapelton without Clarendon College,” he said. “They have a student population of about 1700, which is good business for the town. School over by about 2:30 and by five they have gone home, so by six o’clock the town is basically locked down,” he said.

He recalls when the situation was very different. “Chapelton was the economic hub of the parish,” noted Jackson, one of three unsung heroes honoured by the parish last Heroes’ Day for his role in community development. “It was considered a town of ease, so people travelling from the direction of Brandon Hill and May Pen would use it as a rest stop,” he said.

“In the 1940s and 50s, Chapelton had a lot of dry goods stores where you get every little thing to buy. It was also one of the first inland towns with hotels, and the town actually used to attract a lot of tourists. A lot of the businesses in the town were owned by the Syrians … There were quite a few Chinese as well. But over time, things slowed,” he said.

Today, perhaps Chapelton’s best asset is the low rate of major criminal activity. “It is still a very quiet town; quite peaceful,” Jackson pointed out. “Crime is under control. Only praedial larceny, which seems to be rampant, is a concern,” he said.

While Jackson, who lives in the centre of the town and operates a farm store, believes Chapelton’s many historical sites could make it a prime destination for heritage tourism, he seems unsure whether the town can once again become a leading economic force in the parish.

“That will be difficult,” he said, “because unlike (neighbouring) Summerfield, Chapelton does not really have any land space to build. The surrounding communities are into farming, but sugar cane and citrus are no longer in demand.

“A lot of the educated young people from the community who go off to college don’t return because there are no jobs to attract them here. What they need to do now is offer skill training. They built a lovely community centre in Summerfield, where they used to offer training but for some reason that is not happening anymore,” he said.