Holiday Jamaica

Overview

This page provides information about the Cherry Garden Great House located in the parish of St Andrew, Jamaica. It was home to George William Gordon, a National Hero of Jamaica, and years before that, was associated with Jonathan Dickinson, an influencial business man who eventually became a politician and mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Cherry Garden Great House sits on about 2 acres of what was the Gomersall sugar plantation in the 17th century. The owner of the plantation, Ezekiel Gomersall (1663-1734), was one of the largest slave owners in Jamaica and the single largest purchaser of slaves in the parish of St. Andrew. He was also one of the counsellors, or commissioners that oversaw one of the more famous trials in Jamaica's history; the trial of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, the infamous female pirates associated with Captain Rackham, aka Calico Jack.

The Cherry Garden great house and its grounds is today, a shadow of its former self. The house has several features associated with the Great Houses of the time. The design made provisions for ventilation and illumination, through the use jalousie windows along the main wall, punctuated by intermediary casements. These jalousie windows extended from the chair rail level up to the underside of the wooden beams or joist supporting the floor level above. A verandah to the back extends the interior living space to the outdoors on both the ground and upper floors, another feature typical of the period . The upper floor is accessible via an interior and an exterior staircase. A practical feature that allowed the interior to be closed off during hot days, without impeding access to both floors from the inside or outside living spaces.

The kitchen was built as a separate structure, located to mitigate risk of fire in main dwelling and not introduce additional heat to it. The original kitchen is no longer there but walkway between it and main house still exists.

The grounds have several features such as orchids collection, gardens with hot-house treasures carelessly scattered around, crotons shrubs and orange trees planted as an experiment.