Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Today, the Steeple Building houses the National Park Service Museum, with exhibits de-
picting life in old St Croix. There are Taíno relics, agricultural exhibits and a model of a
working sugar plantation.
Government House
HISTORICAL BUILDING
(King St)
This three-story, U-shaped building, mixing neoclassical and baroque elements,
fills a quarter of a block between King and Company Sts, just west of the other historic
buildings at Kings Wharf. Begun as a private home in 1747, Government House evolved
into one of the most elaborate governor's residences in all of the Lesser Antilles. Various
Danish governors bought up surrounding townhouses and joined them together to form the
current structure, which has galleries of colonnades surrounding a grassy courtyard and or-
namental garden. Visitors can enter via the sweeping staircase on King St and explore the
huge 2nd-floor reception hall, which is still used for some formal government functions.
The period furnishings are gifts from the Danish government.
Lutheran Church
CHURCH
(King St)
Just beyond Government House as you move west on King St stands Christi-
ansted's oldest church. Begun in about 1740 as the Dutch Reformed Church, this one-story,
cruciform-plan house of worship became the property of the Lutherans in the early 1830s,
when they moved here from the Steeple Building. The building is remarkable not only for
its age, but also for the unusual three-tier Gothic tower added over the entranceway years
after the original construction. This is still an active parish.
Apothecary Hall
EXHIBIT
(QueenCrossSt; 10am-5pmMon-Sat)
On Queen Cross St, in between Company and
Queen Sts, this little exhibit behind plexiglas shows what a local 19th-century pharmacy
stocked with potions and pills looked like.
Market Square
MARKET
(Company St)
Frederik Moth laid out Market Square in 1735 as the site for the town's
produce market. The square still attracts a few fruit and vegetable vendors (especially on
Saturday morning) around the intersection of Company and Queen Cross Sts.
