Halse Hall Great House

Parish: Clarendon

When the English captured Jamaica in 1655, it was the custom to give officers of the army land grants. Halse Hall was given to Major Thomas Halse. On the site, Halse raised hogs, grazed cattle and built a house of thick walls. The house served as the centre of his estate and a rallying point for defence. When Thomas Halse died in 1702, the Great House was still a single storey building.

It became a more imposing and beautiful two-storey structure in an era of security and prosperity during the late 1740s. The estate was then owned by Francis Saddler Halse. An elaborate arrangement of stone steps ascended to the new entrance, which was flanked by columns and capped with a fanlight. The peaked portico was added later to conform to a popular architectural style.

A new wing which harmonizes well with the Great House architecture was later added by Alcoa Minerals of Jamaica.