Fair Prospect Windmill Tower, Fair Prospect High School

The Fair Prospect Windmill Tower, now located on the campus of Fair Prospect High School in Portland, is a rare surviving structure from Jamaica’s sugar plantation era. Built in the late 1700s, it was originally machine powered and was used to crush sugarcane on the Fair Prospect Estate, a large sugar and rum-producing plantation owned by several people including Edward Bullock, James Jones and the Aguilar and Fernandes families.

This windmill was central to the estate’s operations, using wind power to rotate rollers that crushed cane for juice, which was then boiled and processed into sugar and molasses. The estate was worked by hundreds of enslaved Africans, with records showing over 370 enslaved people within the 1800s. After the decline in the sugar industry, the windmill was later repurposed to draw water from an underground source, which is now a dry cave.

The tower stands about 25 feet tall, built with cut stone and brickwork, with arched entrances and thick walls over 3 feet wide. Though the original fan blades are now missing, the rest of the structure remains intact including the stairs, cap base and parts of the boiling house as well. Additionally, it also had a secret tunnel that once led to the sea.

Today, the tower continues to hold its significance in the area as a site of the past as well as a reminder of our ancestors who lived and labored on the estate.