Kingston

Kingston is the capital of Jamaica, on the southeast coast of the island beside a deep natural harbor sheltered by the Palisadoes spit. Ska and reggae grew up in its recording studios and sound systems in the 1960s.

Kingston was laid out in 1692 on the plain north of the harbor for people who left Port Royal, the old port at the tip of the Palisadoes, after an earthquake. The town grew as a market for the sugar estates of the island and replaced Spanish Town as the capital of Jamaica in 1872. After another earthquake early in the 20th century, much of the center was rebuilt in concrete. The University of the West Indies opened its first campus at Mona, on the edge of the city, in the late 1940s.

The Kingston Container Terminal, on the harbor, transfers containers between ships on routes across the Caribbean and through the Panama Canal. Blue Mountain coffee, grown on the slopes above the city, is roasted and shipped from Kingston to buyers in Japan and other countries. J. Wray and Nephew, based in the city, makes Appleton Estate rum and a strong white overproof rum.

The Bob Marley Museum, in the house on Hope Road where he lived and recorded, keeps his gold records and his recording studio. Devon House, a mansion of the 1880s built for the first black millionaire of Jamaica, George Stiebel, has shops and an ice cream parlor in its grounds. The National Gallery of Jamaica, on the waterfront, holds paintings and sculpture by Jamaican artists such as Edna Manley.