After the capital was removed Spanish Town lost much of its life and grandeur. To date Spanish Town is considered as a town of significant historical value in this hemisphere. It boasts the oldest iron bridge of its kind in the Western Hemisphere, which was erected in 1801 at a cost of four thousand pounds. It also had one of the first Spanish Cathedrals to be established in the new world. This was built around 1525.
Most religious denominations have churches or meeting halls in the town.
In the town standing untouched in character is an historic alms-house and a public hospital and a maximum penal institution built in the eighteenth century. There is in the town itself a factory where dyes are made from logwood, and a rice processing plant. In acknowledgement of this town's importance the Spanish Town Historic Foundation was created to assist in the refurbishing, renovating and to further the development of the town.