Baptist Manse

1801 1850

The building now known as the Baptist Manse was built as a Masonic Temple in 1798. Based upon practices in other Masonic temples, members likely gathered for meals downstairs and performed the rites of their order upstairs. The Gothic pointed arches of the second floor windows were rare in the Caribbean at the end of the eighteenth century and might have been used to emphasize the mystical and exotic nature of the Masonic rites. The Free Masons sold the building to the Baptists in 1832, when it likely served as a Manse for the great advocate for Emancipation, William Knibb, while he served as the pastor of Falmouth’s Baptist church. The building now serves as the headquarters for Falmouth Heritage Renewal.

Water Square and Market Street District

B030-S004