Christiansted National Historic Site

Christiansted National Historic Site
IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
Location	Christiansted, Virgin Islands, USA
Coordinates
Area	27.15 acres (0.11 km²)
Established	March 4, 1952
Visitors	106,015 (in 2005)
Governing body	National Park Service

Christiansted National Historic Site commemorates urban colonial development of the Virgin Islands. It features 18th and 19th century structures in the heart of Christiansted, the capital of the former Danish West Indies on St. Croix Island.

On the grounds are five historic structures: Fort Christiansværn (1738), the Danish West India & Guinea Company Warehouse, where Alexander Hamilton worked as a young man before emigrating to the American colonies (1749), the Steeple Building (1753), Danish Custom House (1844), and the Scale House (1856). This is also the site where African slaves were brought by ship from Africa and sold to local planters to work on the sugar plantations.

History

It was first established on March 4, 1952, as Virgin Islands National Historic Site through the initiative of concerned local citizens, to preserve the historic structures and grounds within its boundaries, and to interpret the Danish economy and way of life, including colonial administration, military and naval establishment, international trade (including slave trade), religious diversity, architecture, trades and crime and punishment, between 1733 and 1917. The site was renamed on January 16, 1961. As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, the historic site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.

The National Park Service, as part of their Centennial Initiative celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2016, is planning to rehabilitate the main warehouse facility into a slave trade museum and to restore the complex to how it appeared in 1833.

Gallery

File:USVI-StCroix-Steeple-Panorama.jpeg

View from the Steeple Building

• Stcroixhistoricchristiansted.jpg

  Interior of Fort Christiansværn

• Fort Christiansvaern.jpg

  An 1836 plan of Fort Christiansværn

See also

• Hispanic Heritage Sites (U.S. National Park Service)

References

• The National Parks: Index 2001–2003. Washington: U.S. Department of the Interior.

External links

• NPS: Official Christiansted National Historic Site website