Moon Author's Review
The Half Way Tree Courthouse adjacent to the Parish Church is a good example of Georgian architecture, dating from 1807. The front of the building is covered with latticework, presumably to keep out the heat as a form of early air conditioning. The building has been repaired and altered several times to fix storm damage, while it miraculously escaped damage during the 1907 earthquake.
The courthouse has seen many uses, from ex-slaves obtaining their certificates of freedom to agricultural society meetings. After the construction of the Resident Magistrates Court on nearby Maxfield Avenue in 1920, court sessions were no longer held at Half Way Tree Courthouse. Up until the mid-1980s, the building was used as a branch of the Institute of Jamaica called the Junior Centre, which held skills-training courses. In 2002, the center reopened and for a time hosted dance classes of the National Dance Theatre Company under the direction of late UWI professor Rex Nettleford. The courthouse was listed as a Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) site in 1957, and in 1985 the Jamaica Gazette declared it a National Monument. Meanwhile the structure suffered neglect and decay.
One important trial held at the Half Way Tree Courthouse was that of Alexander Bedward, a popular folk hero and founder of a Native Free Baptist sect known as Bedwardism. Bedward was an early Black Nationalist who spoke out against the religious and government authorities of the day. For this he was committed to Bellevue asylum until his death in 1930.
