Oakton House

Parish: St. Andrew

Displaying features informed by Georgian architecture, Oakton house was erected around the middle of the nineteenth century. No record has been found to indicate the original owner of the house, but at one time it was an exclusive school run by one Ms. Bovell, and one Mrs. Van Koolenburg ran it as a guesthouse in the 1920s.

It then became the home of W.E. Powell whose famous bakery was a short distance from the house, near the present clock tower in Half Way Tree. In the 1930s his heirs sold it to the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation, and it was used as a fire station until the 1960s.

After many years of neglect, this house has been beautifully restored. Oakton house was declared a national monument by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust on April 4, 1991.

Presently the building is used as a fast food outlet and an art gallery.