Franciscan Sisters came from Scotland in 1857 to establish Immaculate Conception Academy, a boarding and day school for girls.  For this work, Mother Veronica and three companions had moved on to the Jamaican mission field.  Candidates from prominent Jamaican families soon increased the sisters’ numbers.  Of these, the two D’Aquin and Sisters brough as their dowry the property known as Nuns’ Pen.

Finding that it was no longer possible to obtain more Sisters form Scotland, an appeal for assistance was made to the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany.  In 1878 Sister Veronica, Dominica and Raphael arrived in the West Indies.  The Allegany Franciscan joined with the Sisters from Scotland in directing the missions.

Mother Paula, who succeeded Mother Veronica guided the Sisters through the disastrous earthquake of 1907 that demolished in a few awful minutes the work of fifty years.  The ensuing fire totally destroyed the building on Duke Street, leaving the Sisters nuns’ pen as a haven for the time.  They began to rebuild their shattered schools, and before Mother Paula’s death in 1914, nearly all had been reconstructed.


Mother Paula was succeeded in office by the Alegany Sister Mother Veronica, who spent forty – two years in the Jamaica mission. Her successor was Mother Alacoque. Under her direction, schools opened at Montego Bay and Highgate, and Immaculate Conception High School expanded as a grant-aided school. All the Sisters’ schools were flourishing when a second trial came: an extensive fire destroyed the whole group of buildings at Duke Street.

The Constant Spring Hotel

In 1888 the American Hotel Company established in Constant Spring St. Andrew, a luxury hotel. This hotel and the Myrtle were the first attempts at creating a real hotel industry in Kingston.

The hotel was the first building in Jamaica to be fitted with electricity and indoor plumbing. In addition it was the central factor that initiated development of this rural area. The Constant Spring Post Office for example was instituted primarily for the use of the hotels patrons. Unfortunately the hotel was never to be a financial success.