In northeast St Mary, acres and acres of banana plantations seem to stretch forever, but just between the swaying banana leaves and the sea is the small, coastal highway town of Annotto Bay. In the early twentieth century, Annotto Bay was a thriving shipping town on the north coast, with one of the most important banana shipping wharves operated by the St Mary Banana Company. In the town centre, a handful of early twentieth-century Jamaican vernacular buildings house government social service offices such as the Post Office, the Tax Office and the Police Station. Most of the town lies between two tributaries of the Pencar River that flows into the sea on the east and west sides of the town centre. A small one-lane bridge over the Pencar marks the entrance to the town from the west, and where river meets sea, fishermen string and repair their nets between the lofty coconut trees that line the waterfront. One of the most interesting sights in town is the Baptist Church, which stands proudly beside the Tax Office and market. The red-brick church, with stained glass windows and elaborate fretwork, is a late nineteenth-century "village baroque" structure with scripture quotes engraved in the building’s yellow trim. Ask around for the history of the church; it is said that the minister who built it painstakingly cut and installed all the panes of stained glass himself!