Pedro St. James: Visitor and Heritage Guide

The building

In the late eighteenth century the population of the Cayman Islands was roughly five hundred people, and Grand Cayman was little more than a fishing settlement. Into that, an Englishman named William Eden built a three story great house with stone walls eighteen inches thick, sweeping verandahs and a roof and floors of slate imported from England. Beside the single story wattle and daub dwellings around it, the scale was startling enough that local residents still call it the Castle.

⚠ Who built it

It was built with enslaved labor, and Eden farmed the adjoining land as a plantation. The site own history says so plainly, and this guide repeats it plainly. A restored great house is a pleasant place to spend a morning, and it exists because people were owned and made to work. Both are true at once, and a heritage guide that mentions only the architecture is not telling you what you are looking at.

Two days that changed the territory

Pedro St. James is best known as the birthplace of democracy in the Cayman Islands. On 5 December 1831 a meeting held here reached the decision to form the first elected parliament.

Less than four years later, on 3 May 1835, Robert Thompson, sent from the Governor of Jamaica, held court at Pedro St. James to issue the proclamation ending slavery in the British Empire.

The two dates belong together, and the order matters: the decision to elect a parliament came first, at a place built by people who had no vote and no liberty, and the proclamation that freed them was read out in the same building. Few sites anywhere hold that sequence so compactly.

What happened afterwards

The house went on to serve as a courthouse, a jail, a Government Assembly and a restaurant. The Eden family abandoned it in 1877. It survived hurricanes, fire, lightning strikes, vandalism and a local reputation for being jinxed, and it stands today in restored condition.

Visiting

The site is a Cayman Islands national historic site set on seven landscaped acres by the sea, roughly twenty minutes drive from George Town. Alongside the great house there is a theater presentation and exhibition space.

Give it more time than a photograph needs. The building is the reason to come; the 1831 and 1835 records are the reason it matters.

Practical

• Allow a couple of hours rather than a quick stop, and take the interpretive presentation.
• Pair it with the National Museum in George Town for the wider documentary record.
• Read the site own history before you go. It does not soften how the house was built.

Sources

• Pedro St. James: Site history: the great house built in the late eighteenth century by William Eden using enslaved labor, later used as a courthouse, a jail, a Government Assembly and a restaurant; the meeting of 5 December 1831 at which the decision was made to form the first elected parliament; and the proclamation ending slavery in the British Empire issued there on 3 May 1835 by Robert Thompson, sent from the Governor of Jamaica. Accessed 18 September 2026.
• National Trust for the Cayman Islands: The Trust was established in 1987 as a charity dedicated to protecting biodiversity, local wildlife and critical habitats and to preserving the islands built heritage, and it runs the Heritage Bakehouse as a Caymanian culinary program. Accessed 18 September 2026.