A Temple Sold, a Residence for Women and a Home for the Blind: The Salvation Army’s Property Story in Jamaica

• The Salvation Army’s Jamaican work began in Bluefields, Westmoreland, in 1887
• Its first Kingston temple on Church Street was sold after an 1889 controversy
• It runs the Evangeline Residence for women and the Francis Ham Home
• It has more than 14,000 members, 70 per cent of them women

The Salvation Army’s story in Jamaica is also a story about buildings: halls won and lost, and homes opened for people with nowhere else to live. In a history of the movement published in the Gleaner, writer Paul H. Williams traced how it took root on the island.

The work began at the request of W. Raglan Phillips, an Englishman living in Jamaica who worked as a surveyor, printer and publisher of the Westmoreland Telegraph. General William Booth sent officers, and the first Salvationist activities were established in Bluefields, Westmoreland, in 1887.

Kingston soon had its own place of worship. “The Salvation Army Temple on Church Street was the first of its kind in Jamaica,” the Gleaner noted. But after a controversial 1889 article about the “sins of the Jamaican people” sparked a backlash and a three-day demonstration, Booth recalled his soldiers from Kingston, “and the building on Church St was sold, leaving the members with nowhere to worship.” The mission later revived in the capital, where the headquarters returned, and by 1907 the Army was carrying out major earthquake relief.

Today its headquarters is at 3 Waterloo Road in St Andrew. The Army runs basic schools, a residential school for the blind and visually impaired, male and female hostels, children’s homes, feeding centres and other services. “The Salvation Army also operates the Evangeline Residence in Kingston for professional women who move into Kingston and want a place of safety until they can get on their feet,” the Gleaner reported. The Francis Ham Home “accommodates males and females who are either blind or are retired officers who are no longer able to care for themselves.” It has more than 14,000 members, 70 per cent of them women.

The history carries a lesson about church property that still applies. A congregation that loses its building can be left with nowhere to worship, however strong its faith. And the institutions that last, from hostels to homes for the blind, are those with secure premises and a steady purpose. For churches today, protecting title to their land and using it to house those who need it most remain two sides of the same stewardship.

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