On Company Street, St. Croix

Hello friends, or as we say in the Virgin Islands: Good Morning, Good Afternoon or Good Evening, depending on what time of day you are choosing to read this.

My blog is about the history, art and culture of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Company Street, Christiansted, is my muse. Company Street is one of the main streets of Christiansted, a small town on the eastern shore of the United States of America’s most eastern territory.

For my readers who have never been there, the Virgin Islands are at the top of the Eastern Caribbean island chain, just east of Puerto Rico, that curves down to South America. Some of the Virgins, like Tortola and Virgin Gorda are British, but St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John, are part of the USA.

I grew up in Christiansted in the 1960s and 1970s when it was a bustling little town where many families still lived and worked. It was a boom time in Virgin Islands history with a growing tourism economy and an oil refinery that was being built in the center of the island.

Christiansted was founded more than 250 years ago by Danish colonists seeking to construct a capital for their Caribbean sugar industry.  The town and the sugar industry were built with enslaved African labor and for over two centuries, the islands and the industry were the centerpiece of the Danish economy.

Amidst the turmoil of World War I and in light of its interests in the newly constructed Panama Canal, the United States purchased St. Croix along with her island sisters of St. Thomas and St. John from the Danes for $25 million. With that act, the Danish West Indies became the U.S. Virgin Islands. Next year, in 2017, the Virgin Islands will commemorate 100 years of being a part of the United States of America.

Named after King Christian of Denmark, Christiansted features Danish style architecture with arched buildings, covered sidewalks and sloped red rooftops. It is situated at the mouth of a small harbor, with rolling green hills as a backdrop.

The people of St. Croix and the Virgin Islands as a whole are descendants of the Danish colonists and enslaved Africans and Irish, English, Dutch and Scottish settlers of the colonial period, or of the sugar migrations from Puerto Rico and Barbados in the early 20^th century, or the oil and tourism migrations from the U.S. mainland, and the Eastern Caribbean islands, such as Antigua, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, Dominica, Trinidad, and Aruba of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. The post Hurricane Hugo migrations also brought people from Santo Domingo and Haiti. Migrations of course, are a part of island life. People come in by boat or by airplane and people leave for destinations across the world. As a consequence, there are Virgin Islands people and communities across the Eastern seaboard in New York, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, and in other pockets across the United States. There are also many people who have passed through the Virgin Islands who have a special connection through relationships or memories, or from having lived or visited here at one time or another.

Today, Company Street, Christiansted and St. Croix are in transition. After being rocked by the Great Recession and the closing of the HOVENSA refinery, the street and the town are sprouting new signs of life with the opening of new stores and restaurants and new initiatives from the people who live in and love the place.

All of this leads me back to Company Street, Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands which has seen much activity over the last two and a half centuries. In this blog, I hope to share memories, interview families, spotlight businesses, and discuss history and generally show how a very small place, in the midst of the vast Caribbean Sea, has had an impact on many lives from a diversity of cultures, around the world.

As the world we live in is global and interactive, I would like to hear from you who know and love St. Croix who may have stories, pictures or memories to share about Company Street. Contact me at mcw@bluegaulinmedia.com.

Monique Clendinen Watson is a writer and public relations specialist who is from the U.S. Virgin Islands and who lives in Virginia. She owns a public relations firm, BlueGaulin Media Strategies, www.bluegaulinmedia.com.  Photos by Chalana Brown.