Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kingston
JAMAICA, 1980 Christmas issue: Churches, Scott 494
and its souvenir sheet showing the location of the churches in Kingston, Scott 484a
JAMAICA, 2005, buildings series self-adhesive, Scott 1004A
On 10 January 1837 Pope Gregory XVI created the Apostolic Vicariate of Jamaica; in 1956 Pope Pius XII made it the Diocese of Kingston, and in 1967 Pope Paul VI made it an Archdiocese. Of the 14 vicars apostolic, bishops or archbishops to head the Church in Jamaica from 1837 to the present, ten have been Jesuits, their work centered at this church since its construction. The cathedral was built in 1911 under Bishop John Joseph Collins, SJ (1907-1918) to replace Holy Trinity Church that was destroyed in the 1907 earthquake. It is noted for its 85-foot-high copper dome, its magnificent organ, and for the intricate and ornate murals and decorative artwork done by Br. Francis J. Schroen, SJ, one of the greatest Catholic church interior decorators of his time. In 1970 the art work was covered with gray paint for various reasons, but since 2008 a massive restoration project has begun restoring his work. The edifice was declared a National Heritage Site by the Jamaican Government in 2000.
St. George's College, Kingston
JAMAICA, 1992, the 50th anniversary of the Credit
Union Movement, Scott 781
A stamp issued in 1992 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Credit Union Movement in Jamaica carries an image of O'Hare Hall, the landmark building at St. George's College in Kingston, Jamaica, for it was in this building that the Jamaican Credit Union League was founded by Jesuits of St. George's. Construction of the building was authorized in 1913 by Fr. William F. O'Hare, SJ, headmaster of the school. Later he became bishop and vicar apostolic of Jamaica, and the building was named for him.
St. George's College is a Jesuit secondary school, founded on September 2, 1850 by a group of 21 Spanish Jesuits who had been expelled from Colombia. Two years later, the Spanish Jesuits left Jamaica to teach in Guatemala, and turned St. George's over to the English Jesuits. In 1893, the mission was transferred to the Maryland and New York Province, and in 1929 to the newly formed New England Province. The current site of the school had been bought in 1905, the premises known as Pawsey's Pen or Winchester Park, from a Mr. Alfred Pawsey. His residence was converted into a more modern school with about 100 boys. St. George's became a grant-in-aid school in 1936, and was thus part of the Government's educational system, allowing for the Jamaican Government to pay the salaries of the teaching faculty and administration. This new status, however, forced the Jesuits to give up some of the control of the school. In 1939, St. George's College built the first science laboratory on the island, and added the biology lab in 1947 and the physics lab in 1953. In September, 2005 the college admitted girls to its sixth form program, and now has its first headmistress in 155 years.