In 1962 a new building to house the Archives was built and the records in the former ‘Colonial Archives' were amalgamated with those of the Archives Section of the Island Records Office to form the Jamaica Archives.

The Jamaica Archives remained a part of the Island Record Office until 1982 when the Archives Act, providing for modern archival legislation, was passed. This legislation established the role and functions of the Jamaica Archives which became a department in its own right. Over the years it has been attached to various ministries and now it is a department of the Office of the Prime Minister. When responsibility for records management was added to the department in the late 1980's, and the Government Records Centre established in Kingston, the name of the department was changed to the Jamaica Archives and Records Department.