The lodging industry in Jamaica has a long history, growing from a few lodging houses and inns in the 1800s to a plethora of hotels, resorts, guests’ houses, timeshares, bed and breakfasts, condominiums, cottages, and inns, among others. — Jamaica Tourist Board, 2014 [Clarke, Mayo, Cornwall – Case Study of Lodging Operations in Jamaica]

Some of you might have a vague memory that your parents, grandparents, or great grandparents spent their honeymoon at the Mount Mansfield Guest House, or once had lunch or afternoon tea there. It was the Terra Nova of its day. For others, would you recall that a relative might had worked there?

Many people still remember or have heard of the Blue Mountain Inn on Gordon Town Road. From 1954-2005 it operated as an exclusive inn and gourmet restaurant. Local and foreign dignitaries, including a member of the British Royal Family, dined there.

I doubt, though, that there are many people who know or recall that the building, which the Blue Mountain Inn occupied, existed possibly before 1826. It was the Mount Mansfield Guest House from circa 1826 to 1954, which provided accommodation for long- and short-term visitors in picturesque and salubrious surroundings.

From the 17th into the 19th centuries, a visitor to Jamaica, if not accommodated in a home or military barracks, had to take a chance on finding suitable lodgings in the available taverns, inns, and lodging houses. Many were often on the seedy side. By 1830 it is reported that there were about 1,400 lodging houses and inns across Jamaica. The most famous was Ferry Inn, built in 1684.

In its day, the Mount Mansfield Guest House, from reports, maintained a very good reputation for the quality of its facilities and services. Seven miles from Kingston, at the entrance to the coffee-growing foothills of the Blue Mountains, it was at higher elevation which made it cooler. This elegant, commodious house was set in lush gardens with established trees and a river running through the property.

Mount Mansfield was originally part of the Maryland Coffee Estate established in 1809 by Sir Edward Hyde East. It had several owners through the years.

The house shows up in the 1826 Jamaica Almanac with Charles Grant (deceased) listed as the proprietor. Grant was associated with Abbey Court, Ferry Pen, and other properties in Kingston and St Andrew. By 1829, the occupant is shown as José Antonio Abad Iznaga y Borrell, a Cuban independence advocate and refugee. It is believed Iznaga was assassinated by Spanish agents in Jamaica in 1827. The proprietor, in 1830, was Levy Hyman, who owned Hyman’s Delight in St Andrew.

By 1844, Benjamin Alberga is listed as the proprietor. The old Alberga Bridge nearby could have been named for this family. The Alberga brothers were bankrupt by 1878 and their properties in Jamaica were sold at public auction in London, England.

Susan Rebecca Burton 1835-1887

News reports in 1886 show that Susan Rebecca Burton, “a coloured woman”, was the proprietor of Mount Mansfield Guest House. The Burton family also managed St Thomas’s House on Hanover Street and Park Lodge on Windward Road, which was previously the stately home of the Custos Dr Lewis Q Bowerbank.

General James Mann, civil engineer, who came to Jamaica in 1867 to assume the post of director of roads, lived at Mount Mansfield from 1867 to 1886 when he returned to Britain. A The Gleaner news item informs that Burton of Mount Mansfield joined other well-wishers to bid farewell to her guest and his family. She is mentioned in Anna Brassey’s (Lady Brassey) travel book In the Trades, the Tropics and the Roaring Forties: 14,000 Miles in the Sunbeam in 1883. Her boarding houses were also mentioned in The English in the West Indies by James Anthony Froude, published in 1888.

Burton and her accommodation, meals, and hospitality received high commendation. She and her family, as “hoteliers”, were well known and respected in Kingston and St Andrew. She died suddenly in 1887.

Promoting tourism

As the Great International Exhibition was to be held in Jamaica in 1891 it was acknowledged that there were not enough hotel rooms to accommodate the expected visitors. This was seen as an opportunity to promote tourism. Quality guest houses, like Mount Mansfield, could only accommodate a few people. The Jamaica Hotel Law of 1890 was adopted to facilitate the building of large hotels, like Myrtle Bank and Constant Spring (now Immaculate High School). The year after the exhibition Mount Mansfield Guest House was advertised for sale.

The 1910 Kingston Commercial Directory has John Tapley of Nathan and Company (King and Barry streets) as the proprietor. This was after the 1907 earthquake, leading into the period of the First World War (WWI) and the Spanish Flu. This was a difficult period for lodging houses.

Forward to 1927 and Nellie Jones was the proprietor and manager. John Osbourne Mayes seems to have been her business partner. In a competitive atmosphere, the guest house was continuously being advertised to attract clients for long and short stays, honeymoons, dinners, drinks, and other social gatherings at moderate rates.

Nellie Jones was also renting other properties and selling various items. This was the period of the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression. The economic challenges were severe in Jamaica, leading to the 1938 labour unrest. In the 1940s, the WWII years, the sole proprietor is listed as John Osbourne Mayes. Interestingly, Jones and Mayes had married in 1938. The manager then, Gordon Black, was very popular, and Mount Mansfield survived.

In 1953 Stanley Dent, hotelier, who established and managed Sans Souci Hotel, Ocho Rios, came out of retirement and bought Mount Mansfield. He kept on Gordon Black as manager. The guest house was closed for renovation and reopened in December 1954 as the Blue Mountain Inn. The name was formally changed in 1956. The Mount Mansfield Guest House thus ceased to operate after possibly 130 years. The house embarked on the new era as the elegant Blue Mountain Inn and Restaurant, where Princess Margaret dined during her visit in February 1955, and many individuals still reminisce about their romantic evenings there.