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Places & Spaces
Virtually every room in the house is defined by its vista – venerable mango trees, flowering vines, shaded lawns, and an old formal garden, now planted in vegetables. When the ylang-ylang tree near to the entrance is in hardly have been more perfectly named. bloom, you wake to its perfume. The property could
Mount Pleasant is an old estate house, five minutes
from the bustling town of Runaway Bay on Jamaica’s
North Coast. Its rooms are large and airy, with the tall age. Its views invite you to simply sit and stare. The small farms, parakeets going to roost in the evening and the hunting calls of owls at night. It has the air anywhere else in Jamaica. of a place where time moves decidedly slower than
windows and graceful architectural features of another sounds you will most likely hear are of goats on nearby
Originally a pimento estate, Mount Pleasant has been sketchy, but something of its 20th century journey is the property and turned it into a guest house and from England and Europe.
through many transitions. Its entire history is somewhat known. Just after World War II, a Miss Todd purchased retreat for visitors, many of whom would have come
In the mid-1950s, Miss Todd (by then Mrs. Fisher) sold Mount Pleasant to a Dr. Mellon, who it is said, was a York. Under his exacting supervision, the property was extensively renovated and transformed. His member of the powerful Mellon Banking family of New
contractor was the legendary Mr. Maffessanti, and you can still find evidence of his hand in the house, such dining table. as in the beautiful Murano glass chandelier above the
In the early 1970s, Mount Pleasant was sold to The
James S. Hunt Charitable and Educational Foundation about their ownership, and soon the property was
Inc. (of the Hunt’s Ketchup family). Not much is known advertised for sale in the Wall Street Journal. By that
time, the house had run down a little and it was bought of the couples went on to run it as a cattle farm and it for the Summit in the Sun.
by two couples, who made it habitable, but basic. One was during this period that the property was the venue
It must have been quite an occasion, as prominent leaders of the Commonwealth and Latin America gathered to discuss the problems facing developing nations. Guests included: Michael Manley, Prime