Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
were reported living on St. Thomas, along with their slaves. Captain Kidd, Sir Francis
Drake, Blackbeard, and other legendary pirates of the West Indies continued to use
St. Thomas as their base for maritime raids in the area. Its harbor also became famous
for its slave market.
In 1717, Danish planters sailed to St. John from St. Thomas to begin cultivating
plantations. By 1733, an estimated 100 sugar, tobacco, and cotton plantations were
operating on the island. That same year, the slaves rebelled against their colonial
masters, taking control of the island for about 6 months and killing many Europeans.
It took hundreds of French troops to quell the rebellion.
2
THE DANES ARE GONE BUT
their
architecture
STILL STANDS
Some of the architectural legacy left by
the colonizing Danes still remains in the
islands, especially in Christiansted and
Frederiksted on St. Croix, and in Char-
lotte Amalie on St. Thomas.
Many of the commercial buildings
constructed in downtown Charlotte
Amalie are restrained in ornamentation.
Pilasters and classical cornices were
commonplace on many buildings. Most
door arches and windows were framed
in brick. To “dress up” a building, orna-
mentation, such as cornices, was added
in the final stages. The walls were cov-
ered with plaster, but in recent decades
this plaster and stucco have been
stripped from the walls. Underneath the
rubble, well-designed shapes and pat-
terns of old brick and blue bitch—a
stone made of volcanic tuff—were dis-
covered. The old masons may have
known what they were doing. Once
stripped of their plaster coating, the
walls don't stand up well in the Carib-
bean sun and salt air. Cast-iron grillwork
on some of the second-floor overhang-
ing balconies displays a certain architec-
tural flair. Many of the buildings in St.
Thomas originally had courtyards, or still
do. These added to the living space on
the second floor. In the courtyard were
kitchens and, almost more vital, cisterns
to capture the precious rainwater.
Similar building techniques were used
on structures that went up on St. Croix.
Christiansted remains one of the most
historically authentic towns in the West
Indies, true to its original Danish colonial
flavor. The basic style was a revival of
the European classic look of the 18th
century, but with variations to accom-
modate the tropical climate. As early as
1747, the Danes adopted a strict building
code, which spared Christiansted from
some of the violent fires that virtually
wiped out Charlotte Amalie. Frederik-
sted, the other major town of St. Croix,
has a well-designed waterfront, with
blocks of arcaded sidewalks. The quar-
ter is protected by the government as
part of Frederiksted's National Historic
District.
Great architecture was never the
forte of the British Virgin Islands. During
a time when major buildings might have
been created, the B.V.I. were too eco-
nomically depressed to find the funds
for major structures of lasting signifi-
cance. Therefore, for much of its history,
its people have lived in typical West
Indies shanties, with an occasional pub-
lic building constructed that vaguely
imitated 18th-century Europe in style.
Curiously enough, although the B.V.I.
didn't leave the world any lasting archi-
tectural heritage, it did produce a native
son, William Thornton, whose designs
were used for the U.S. Capitol building
in Washington.
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