Why stay at an older hotel? The biggest advantage is the first hotels grabbed the best natural beaches and other best locations. These days they plop a resort anywhere and add a man-made beach and cove. Some examples: The Palmyra Resort and Iberostar Grand Hotel Rose Hall and my favorite: Club Ambiance.

Maps

The core of this list was obtained from the Esso Jamaica road maps that I have. (Many editions were printed every few years starting in 1958. I need 1963 and ~1975.) Some earlier hotels are from my Collins Road Map of Jamaica from the mid-1950s. A list of the principal hotels extant as of 1952 can be found in this Handbook Of Jamaica starting on page 26. The cutoff date for inclusion here is early 1970s. Very useful in finding what is at a spot now is WikiMapia, where people identify what is seen in Google's satellite photos.

I was unsuccessful getting my high-end panorama stitching package to do a mosaic stitch of the Collins map scans. They don't fit in with the Esso maps linked to below, so here is the northern coast in four maps: Negril To MoBay and MoBay To Runaway Bay and Runaway Bay To Annotto Bay and Annotto Bay And East + Kingston. [Legend: The initials after a town note whether there is a: PS-Police Station, PO-Post Office, and T-Telephone.]

Postcards

Postcard pictures were obtained from several sources. All of the Cards pictured here were for sale at one point. Most of the cards are for sale now. You might even have multiple cards of the same scene to choose from. For Jamaica collections see:

• eBay has: For Sale and Completed.
• CardCow has more than 150 Jamaica cards for sale.
• Antanlontan-Antilles is good for scenes with natives.
• Delcampe is an international marketplace with a huge number of cards. Most sellers are from outside the US.
• bidStart is a marketplace with more than fifteen hundred Jamaica postcards for sale. This is an excellent site for collectibles, especially for stamps.

I found some hotel brochures from 1953. They are noted alongside the hotels below. Or see list of all travel brochures.

Help

If you have any information that you can add to this page, especially the year of openings, name changes, and closings, a link to my e-mail can be found at the bottom.

Hotels are listed in island clockwise-order. From each postcard picture page you can go directly to the next hotel.

Table of Contents to the Below:

West of Montego Bay Montego Bay Between Montego Bay & Ocho Rios

Ocho Rios East of Ocho Rios Port Antonio & East

Kingston South Middlesex

West of Montego Bay (west to east)

• Negril
  • Sundowner Hotel, Negril. This first appears on the 1967 map. This and Coconut Grove were combined into Sandals Negril Beach resort (which opened in 1988), where it was called the Sundowner building. In 2006 the building was torn down and replaced. Here is a satellite photo. Which part was Sundowner?
• Lucea to Montego Bay
  • The Tryall Club, Sandy Bay. Former great house was converted to a hotel in the late 1930s. First villa 1959, most 1970s. Only villas now. Had golf. Still there. [vintage postcards]
  • Round Hill Hotel. Opened 1953. Had cottage owners. All villas. Still there. [vintage postcards]
  • Blairgowrie Hotel, Reading. This last appears on the 1983 map. Based on the map and the postcard swimming pool, it was at the center of this satellite photo. Their second pool can be seen NNE of the property along the water. [vintage postcards]

Montego Bay (south to north)

• South
  • Seawind Beach Resort. Plans for the 480-room Montego Towers were discussed in January 1968. It was still an island on the 1967 map. The 1972 map shows it connected and with roads. On the 1979 map the resort appears. Then it became the Radisson Sunset Island. After 1997 it became Sunset Beach Resort. [vintage postcards]
  • The Fairfield Hotel. Opened before 1940. Had 9-hole golf course and eight turf tennis courts a minute's walk away at St. James Country Club. No golf there now, but plenty of space for it on the Barnett Estate & Plantation. On the property the Bellefield Great House & Gardens is now a restaurant and museum. In this satellite photo the red roofed house would be the great house. Another house would be the plantation manager's house. Note the decaying tennis courts. [vintage postcards] [1953 Brochure]
• Miranda Hill/Downtown
  • Richmond Hill Inn. Opened in the late 1930s. Former great house on property that dates back to the 1790s. Still there. [vintage postcards]
  • Ethelhart Hotel. Opened before 1940. Closed between 1961 and 1967. It appears to be the unlabeled building that is at the dead center of this satellite photo. What is it now? [vintage postcards]
  • Montego Bay Hotel. Open before 1908. Either this closed before 1961, or more likely it became the Montego Inn. This appears to be where the crosshairs are in this satellite photo. [vintage postcards]
  • The Upper Deck. This first appears on the 1972 map. Now condominiums and rooms can be rented, though no website found. [vintage postcards]
  • Montego Bay Racquet Club. This first appears on the 1972 map. On WikiMapia this shows as Jamaica Racquet Club, but I can't find much on the web. [vintage postcards]
  • Spring Hill Hotel. Was open in 1908. Location in Montego bay is unknown. [vintage postcards]
  • Staffordshire Hotel. Open by 1923. It was a business hotel at 28 Union St.
• Doctor's Cave Beach
  • Harmony House. This appears to have been where the building is now under the word Margueritaville on this satellite photo, which appears to be an office building between The Native restaurant and the Pork Pit.
  • Mar Vista Hotel. Opened before 1940. Closed between 1961 and 1967. This appears to have been where the Altamont West Hotel now is. Which before a 2007 reopening was the Belvedere Beach Hotel.
  • Miranda Lodge. Owned and operated by the Myers family. It appears to have been located behind the hexagon building (Rosa's Sports Bar, ex Walters Bar). See satellite photo. What is it now?
  • Coral Cliff Hotel. Opened before 1940. Still there. Now known as a small slots casino. Rooms were still available at least through 2008. They may still be. [No e-mail and contact form at website doesn't work.]
  • The Hacton House [vintage postcards]. Several photos of The Hacton House from 1956 taken by Charles Runge can be found at Picasa.
  • Doctor's Cave Hotel. Long before the 1950s it became the Casa Blanca Beach Hotel. Owned and operated by the Ewen family. Still there. [vintage postcards] [1953 Brochure]
  • Beach View Hotel. Open by 1940. Was owned and operated by the Edwards family. It appears to have been where the much larger Gloucestershire Hotel was or now is. [vintage postcards] [1953 Brochure]
  • Gloucester House. Opened in the late 1930s. At some point in time it became the Doctor's Cave Beach Hotel. It was last renovated in October 2006. [vintage postcards] [1953 Brochure]
  • Casa Montego. This became the Fantasy Hotel. Closed around 1993. Hotel is still there closed up. [vintage postcards]
  • Montego Beach Hotel. Open by 1950. Was Jack Tar Village for a period and adults only. Then it was the Allegro Resort Jack Tar Village. Now Royal Decameron Montego Beach. [vintage postcards]
  • Sunset Lodge. Was owned and operated by the deLisser family. Now is the two-story section in northern part of RDMB. [vintage postcards]
  • Carlyle Beach Hotel. First appears on the 1972 map. Now is the Sandals Carlyle.
  • Chatham Hotel. Opened before 1940. Was owned and operated by the Foster family. In December 1985 it opened as the Paradise Beach Club. Now Sea Garden Beach Resort. [vintage postcards]
• North of the Airport
  • Holiday House. For a time was Stetson's Holiday House. It first apppears on the 1961 map.
  • Bay Roc Hotel. Opened 1953 with 66 rooms and 30 privately owned cottages. Designed by the famed architect Edward Durell Stone. In 1981 it was renovated and became Sandals Montego Bay. In 2007 the cottages, now all owned by Sandals, were refurbished and named "Bay Roc Beachfront Villas." [vintage postcards]

Between Montego Bay & Ocho Rios (west to east)

• Rose Hall
  • Breezy Point Hotel. This appears on 1966-67 maps. It is just to the west of the Royal Caribbean. Possibly it was planned but never built?
  • Royal Caribbean Hotel and Sea Club. In 1982 it became the Sandals Royal Caribbean. (Was it Sandals Royal Jamaican for a while?) [vintage postcards]
  • Continental Hotel. This appears only on 1966 and 1967 maps.
  • Montego Court. This is on the 1958 and 1961 maps, and not the 1966 Texaco and 1967 Esso maps. I could not find any web evidence that a Montego Court ever existed. Getting the 1963 map will narrow down the years. A suggestion was made that this could now be the Cariblue Beach and Scuba Diving Resort (previously Harvey Beach Hotel), except this one is on the beach side of the road and on the maps the Montego Court is across the road.
  • Sunspree Hotel. Opened 1971. In 1983 it was The Holiday Inn Hotel. Now is Holiday Inn SunSpree Resort. [vintage postcards]
  • Half Moon Hotel & Cottage Colony. Opened 1954. Golf added after 1961. In 1980 56 acres of land to the east was purchased. In 2003 the original 30-room hotel was demolished. [vintage postcards]
  • The Colony Hotel. Purchased by Half Moon Hotel in 1979 and the building is now one-bedroom units [building name? Oleander?]. [vintage postcards]
  • Rose Hall Beach Hotel & Country Club. Opened in early 1970s. Former 18th-c sugar plantation. In April 1978 it was called the Rose Hall Inter-Continental Hotel & Country Club. In 1984 it was part of Wyndham Resorts. Now is Hilton Rose Hall. The golf course was designed in 1969. It, and the great house, is now the Cinnamon Hill Golf Course. [vintage postcards]
• Falmouth
  • Good Hope Country House. Former great house that became a hotel in the early 1900's. Still there. [vintage postcards]
• Duncans
  • Silver Sands Hotel and Beach Club. Open by 1952. Only villas all privately owned. Still there.
• Discovery Bay
  • Columbus Inn And Cottages. Open by 1949. This appears on the mid-1950s Collins map. Gone by 1958. On the 1972 map there is a Discovery Bay Hotel at about that spot. [vintage postcards]
• Runaway Bay
  • Eaton Hall Hotel. Former great house. It is all still there and being used as villas for SuperClubs managers to live in. See satellite photo.
  • Runaway Bay Hotel & Country Club. Golf course designed in 1960. Opened early 1960s. A building, now torn down, is pictured on the "Runaway Bay Hotel Jamaica" record album cover, which can be seen at the bottom of Mento Music: Arthur Knibbs. This is now Superclubs' Breezes Runaway Bay Resort & Golf. Was it called Jamaica Jamaica at one time? Which was the Jack Tar Runaway Bay for a short while? [vintage postcards]
  • Silver Spray Resort. Opened 1961-1967. Redeveloped by SuperClubs as Hedonism III Resort. Then in Fall 2010 it was rebranded as a more conservative SuperFun Resort & Spa.
• St. Ann's Bay
  • Osborne Hotel. Opened before 1910. Closed by mid-1950s. [vintage postcards]
  • Windsor Hotel. Closed between 1961 and 1967. Now is The Windsor Girls Home (876) 972-2707. [vintage postcards]
  • Arawak Hotel. Open by mid-1950s. In the mid-1960s it became the Jamaica Hilton Hotel. It may have also been called the Arawak Hilton Hotel. In 1991 it became Sandals Dunn's River Villaggio Golf Resort & Spa. Recently it became Jewel Dunn's River Resort. [vintage postcards]
• Moneague
  • Moneague Hotel. Built in 1891. The hotel suffered after cars became popular and it was no longer needed as a train stopover. During WWII used as a soldier's camp. In 1956 the site became the Moneague Teacher Training College. Only the ruins of the landmark still stand. [vintage postcards]

Ocho Rios (west to east)

• Ocho Rios
  • Shaw Park Hotel. Former great house. It became a hotel in 1923. Hotel moved to Shaw Park Beach Club in mid-1960s. This is now Shaw Park Botanical Garden. [vintage postcards]
  • Silver Seas Hotel. Open by 1948. Still there. [vintage postcards]
  • Hibiscus Lodge. Still there, but e-mail to it bounces.
  • Carib-Ocho Rios Sea & Country Club. In 1989 it became the Sandals Ocho Rios. At some point it merged with Ciboney to become the Sandals Grande Ocho Rios. Then it became the Sandals Grande Riviera. [vintage postcards]
  • Plantation Inn. Opened in 1957 as a "sister" hotel to the adjacent Jamaica Inn. It originally was part of the sprawling Coconut Grove Estate, owned by Mary Melhado. Now Sandals Royal Plantation. [vintage postcards]
  • Jamaica Inn, opened 1950. Still there. Being one of the first it got one of the best beaches. [vintage postcards] [1953 Brochure]
  • Sans Souci. Open by 1948. Missing on 1972 map. On the 2005 map it is the Sans Souci Lido. Now Couples Sans Souci. [vintage postcards]

East of Ocho Rios

• Tower Isle
  • Rebellion Inn. Only on 1961 map.
  • Tower Isle Hotel. Opened 1949. Picked one of the best natural beaches. For a time it was Couples Ocho Rios. Now is Couples Tower Isle. [vintage postcards]
  • Falcondip. In the mid-1960s it became the Island Inn.
• Boscobel
  • Marrakesh Beach Hotel & Cabana Club. In the early 1960s it became the Playboy Club & Hotel. It closed in the 1970s. The property was acquired in 1984 and after three years opened as a Superclub family resort (Boscobel Beach Club?). It then became the Sandals Beaches Boscobel Resort Club. [vintage postcards]
  • Golden Head Beach Resort. New early 1960s? Now appears to be converted to villas as Golden Cove Boscobel.
• Oracabessa
  • GoldenEye Hotel. Started before 1950. Built up in 1956.
• Port Maria
  • Trade Winds, Galina Point. Established in the 1950s. Now called Galina Breeze.
  • Casa Maria Hotel. Still there.
  • Castle Gordon Hotel. Listed in the 1952 handbook and appears on the mid-1950s Collins map. Not on 1961 or later maps. [1953 Brochure]

Port Antonio & East

• Port Antonio
  • Titchfield Hotel, Port Antonio, Portland. It was constructed around 1891, in time for the opening of the Great Jamaica Exhibition. It burned and was reopened in 1905. It burned down again in the 1960s. Today the property is part of the Jamaican Defence Force on the west side of the peninisula on the bluff above the Errol Flynn Marina and facing Navy Island. [vintage postcards]
  • De Montevins Lodge Hotel. Built 1881. Still in operation.
  • Jamaica Reef Hotel. [vintage postcards]
  • Bonnie View, opened 1921, closed. Now ruins with a view from 600' up. [vintage postcards]
• Frenchman's Cove
  • Frenchman's Cove Hotel. Has great house and villas. Still there, but I can't get through the Flash at their website.
• Long Bay
  • Long Bay Beach Inn. Gone from 1972 map. Using the Texaco 1966 map on Wikimapia it was located here.

Kingston (alpha within neighborhood)

• Constant Spring and Stony Hill
  • Abahati Hotel, Constant Spring. Opened 1961-1967. Appears to have been open until recently. [vintage postcards]
  • Casa Monte, Stony Hill. Opened 1961-1967. [vintage postcards]
  • Constant Spring Hotel. Built in 1887 for The Great Exhibition of 1891. It was 600 feet above sea level and 6 miles from Kingston. It was easily accessible by electric cars. A nine-hole golf course was added in 1920 and expanded to 18-holes by the 1930s. Then known as Golfer's Hotel. In 1923 it was completely destroyed by fire and was rebuilt. In 1940 it was sold to the Franciscan Sisters to become the Immaculate Conception School for Girls in 1941. The building appears to have been since torn down. The golf course is now the Constant Spring Golf Club. [vintage postcards]
  • Manor House Hotel, Constant Spring. Closed between 1961 and 1967. [vintage postcards]
  • The Stony Hill Hotel, Hermitage. Now closed, but still there in the satellite photo.
• Kings House to Mona Heights
  • Bamboo Lodge, Irish Town. Probably opened in 1949. Originally Cottage Farm great house. Closed by 1961. Now a private estate.
  • Blue Mountain Inn. Still there, but only a restaurant since the mid-1960s.
  • Cliffview Resort Cottages. Nothing known about them except what is seen in the postcard. Location unknown. May not belong in this geographic section. [vintage postcards]
  • Liquanea Terrace Hotel, Old Hope Road. This appears to have been where the Bank of Nova Scotia is now.
  • The Mayfair Hotel, West Kings House Drive. Opened 1961-1967. Is still there.
  • Mona Great House. Appears on the Texaco 1958 map. Now part of the The University of the West Indies. [vintage postcards]
  • Sandhurst Guest House, Sandhurst Crescent. Opened 1961-1967. It then operated as Hotel Sandhurst. Now operating as Hotel Prestige.
  • Terra Nova Hotel, Waterloo Road. Opened 1959. This is now the Terra Nova All Suite Hotel.
• New Kingston and South
  • Abbey Court Hotel, Trafalagar Road. Closed between 1961 and 1967. On the site is now the Abbey Court Condos/Apartments.
  • Courtleigh Manor, Trafalagar Road. Opened before 1952. Is now a parking lot for an office building. [vintage postcards]
  • Flamingo Hotel, Trevennion Road.
  • Green Gables Hotel & Restaurant, 6 Cargill Ave. Opened by 1958. Does not seem to be there now.
  • Kingley, Holborn Road. Opened 1961-1967. This could now be the Indies Hotel.
  • Melrose Hotel, Spencer Lane. Appears on the Texaco 1958 map.
  • Mimosa Lodge, Half Way Tree Road. Appears on the Texaco 1958 map.
  • Morgans Harbour Hotel. Still there.
  • Myrtle Bank Hotel. This was first built in 1870. Then torn down and rebuilt for the Great Exhibition of 1891. Then it was destroyed by the 1907 earthquake and rebuilt again. It was renovated many times and several stories were added to make it five stories. Now an open lot. [vintage postcards] [1940s Brochure]
  • Queen's Hotel, Heywood Street at Princess Street. Built to house the working classes at the time of the Great Exhibition of 1891. Gone before 1961.
  • Roseneath, Eureka Road. Opened 1961-1967.
  • Sheraton Kingston Hotel. Low-rise buildings built 1962. For a while this was the Hilton Kingston. Now is The Wyndham Kingston Jamaica hotel. [vintage postcards]
  • South Camp Road Hotel, 68 S. Camp Rd. Was open in the early 20th century. It housed 48 guests and featured a cocktail bar, fresh water swimming pool, card games and archery for experts and amateurs. It closed in 1957, though it still sppears on the Texaco 1958 map. The area is mostly industrial now. At their location is now the Central Sorting Office. [vintage postcards]
• Spanish Town
  • Hotel Rio Cobre, Spanish Town. Closed before 1961. [vintage postcards]

South Middlesex

• Christiana
  • Manchester Inn. Closed between 1961 and 1967.
  • Villa Bella Hotel. Opened in 1941. In 2001 it was sold and renamed Hotel Villa Bella.
• Mandeville
  • King Edward Hotel. Closed before 1961. Became dèCarteret College High School (founded 1919). Now is a crumbling Victorian mansion.
  • Hotel Manchester. Closed between 1961 and 1967. Site is now Church Teachers' College which was established in 1965. [vintage postcards]
  • The Mandeville Hotel. Opened in 1875 as The Waverly Hotel. Then in 1898 it became the Brooks Hotel, then the Mandeville Hotel. Still there, but all old buildings replaced in 1971. [vintage postcards]
  • Newleigh Hotel, Newleigh Road. Site is now Bishop Gibson High School for girls which opened in February 1962. [vintage postcards]
• Treasure Beach
  • Treasure Beach Hotel. Opened 1935. Still there.

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