Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 25, 1993 TAG: 9307250225
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA LENGTH: Long
But the "White Witch of Rose Hall," as she is known throughout Jamaica nowadays, was no less fiendish in her treatment of her three husbands. In the journal of a Rose Hall slave it is written that she poisoned, stabbed and strangled them one by one with the help of a witch doctor named Takoo.
Today, the haunting, white-stone Rose Hall is one of the island's 46 remaining Great Houses, once the lavish homes of wealthy 18th- and 19th-century plantation owners. Most of the original houses, which numbered 100 or so, were set ablaze during slave rebellions. But several of the survivors have been restored to their original splendor and are available for touring. Rose Hall Great House, for example, is open to the public and stands as a shining example of Georgian-era (1714-1830) architecture adapted to Jamaica's balmy weather. Others, such as Cinnamon Hill Great House, where Johnny Cash and his wife, June, spend much of the year, are privately owned and closed to public viewing.
The Great Houses were built at a time when sugar came made Jamaica the wealthiest English colony in the West Indies. Architectural books imported from England supplied a European grounding to Jamaica's Great Houses, but island conditions dictated a distinctly Creole character. Locally quarried stone and termite-resistant tropical hardwoods were widely used, whereas bricks (which arrived from the mother country as ballast) were used sparingly.
Similar houses in England's snowy latitudes wore steep-pitched roofs, but respect for hurricanes in Jamaica inspired a squat profile, and Caribbean climes made fireplaces unnecessary and ventilation all-important. Whenever possible, Jamaican builders set houses on hills to catch trade winds, and verandas were added to let cooling breezes reach living quarters while keeping the blazing sun out.
The Great House plan followed two main types: the simple block plan, with the hall and staircase in the center, and the central block with wings, to which Rose Hall belonged. Visitors to Rose Hall today are treated to the legend of Annie Palmer as they receive a guided tour of the meticulously restored mansion, which has been smartly furnished with elegant period pieces.
Among the impressive features of Rose Hall, located atop a hill 10 miles east of Montego Bay, are its superbly carved mahogany staircase, a classically proportioned grand ballroom with walls of gray Scalamandre silk in an exotic palm-tree-and-bird motif and a morning room adorned with blue-and-white chinoiserie wall coverings and Blue Willow china displayed on a stately mahogany dining table.
Of course, it's the scenes of the crimes, so to speak, that intrigue most visitors to Rose hall today - the rooms where Annie Palmer allegedly murdered, and the eerily charming room where she herself was reported strangled by Takoo in the shadows of a steamy December night.
About five miles east of Rose Hall, perched high enough on a hill to provide a sweeping view of the electric-blue Caribbean, sits the most splendid of Jamaica's legendary homes: Greenwood Great House. Built in the 1790s by Elizabeth Barrett Browning's cousin, the enormously wealthy Richard Barrett, Greenwood was one of four great houses owned by the Barrett family and was erected solely for extravagant entertaining.
Greenwood's mile-long driveway winds pleasantly around homes built on parts of the original estate, ending where it reaches a simple parking lot behind the Great House. There, a small path guides visitors past a simple limestone building surrounded by bougainvillea, poinciana and hibiscus to the largest of Jamaica's remaining Great Houses.
Built during an age of unmatched elegance and brutality, Greenwood today retains much of that atmosphere. Hung beside the home's back entrance are ancient leather fire buckets and hoses, meager protection against rebellious slaves. Nearby, a 6-foot-long steel man trap, one of many that had been placed in the woods above Greenwood, speaks of the measures used to intimidate prospective runaways.
As at Rose Hall, visitors to Greenwood nowadays are met by friendly women in 18th-century-style dresses who lead them on detailed tours of the breathtaking house. Because Greenwood was used for entertainment, it contains many period musical instruments, all of which can still be played. Among the antique instruments, demonstrated by a guide, are two 170-year-old polyphones (music boxes) used for dances and a barrel organ that clanks out "A Bicycle Built for Two" and other Victorian-era songs.
Hearing the music while gazing around the spacious dining room - a charming alcove containing Regency hand-painted wallpaper with gold laurel wreaths on royal blue, a polished mahogany floor and Wedgwood china specially made for the Barrett family - it is easy to imagine crinolined ladies and gentlemen in their finest evening attire waltzing about the room.
From Greenwood's upper veranda - 70 feet of mahogany and cedar boards - the view of 200 years ago was one filled with sugar-cane fields that stretched nearly a mile to the beach, where a processing plant refined the cane and boats could easily reach the finished product for export. Today, the fields are gone, replaced by hillside homes, but the ocean view is as pleasing as ever - and on a clear day you can see Cuba, 80 miles to the north.
Continuing east on the scenic coastal road that glances the driveways to Rose Hall and Greenwood, you soon come to the town of Falmouth, an architectural showpiece of 18th- and 19th-century buildings.
About 50 miles farther east, past the bustling tourist center of Ocho Rios, is the popular Prospect Plantation, owned from 1936 to 1981 by Sir Harold Mitchell, who enjoyed a powerful political career in England and befriended a great many notable people. Winston Churchill, Pierre Trudeau, Henry Kissinger, Noel Coward and Ian Fleming are just a few of the celebrities who have stayed at the home, located amid rolling hills five miles east of Ocho Rios.
Although Prospect Great Home is off-limits to the general public (Sir Harold's widow still lives there), the plantation itself remains a working agricultural property, and guided tours are available of the immense grounds on horseback or by jitney. Either way, guides lead enjoyable tours that focus on Jamaica's varied crops and the roles these crops have played in the island's history.
by CNB