The Elaine Ione Sprauve Library

 STJ has a lot of ruins, the crumbling remains of a once glorified living, but there is only one "intact" plantation house. This little house once was part of the Enighed (EN-nee-high) sugar plantation.

At the peak of the estate’s prosperity in 1803, it consisted of 225 acres of pasture and sugar crop. All gone to the sprawling town of Cruz Bay. The happy red roof on the hill still stands proudly. I love this little library.

There were 64 slaves working on the plantation.

Post emancipation and a few owners later, a fire destroyed the buildings. Enighed, a burnt-out ruin, remained uninhabited.  In 1944 the last owner sold the property to the Municipality of St. Thomas and St. John. The government sold off most of the land, but retained ownership of about ½ an acre on which the ruined building remained. The property remained untouched until the 1970's.

In 1976 the Enighed site was admitted to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1982 it became the Elaine Ione Sprauve Library, a descendant of the stone mason and freed slave who refurbished the original building after it was damaged in the big hurricane of 1837. Just a couple years ago the building was renovated sympathetically. It's not only a museum with some interesting STJ documents and artifacts but it's become a competitive library in its own right with all the bells and whistles. It's also a reminder of what these ruined buildings once looked like. If you squint your eyes you can see the house set on the hilltop to catch the breezes and imagine a landscape where only the house and it's low outbuildings existed. It's so magically self contained in it's garden world, buffered from the car rentals, govt offices, storage units and other nearby businesses, that walking up to it is like stepping into "backtime" as you cross an invisible line into a different world.

The Burial Ground Behind the Library

This is William Wood's ornate gravestone. It is believed that the Wood family acquired the Estate some time between 1750 and 1757. The gravestone reads "William Wood died at Enighed Estate, St. John, on April 9, 1751".

Possibly a Young Adult and a Child or Baby

 There are about 8 graves in this little plot. Only the head of the family got the fancy internment. Everyone else got simple markers. Most of these burials look like young people or babies. It wasn't an easy life here.

Library Kitteh

In contrast, St Croix has managed to keep their historic estate houses intact because they remained in private hands. In some cases they are still lived in by the original family. It's common to see a modern day house built around and on the foundations and ruins of the plantation, all kept impeccably, making for a fanciful landscape. The down side of STJ having been taken over by the National Park, the intent of which was to keep it unspoiled by development, is that the Park doesn't maintain the buildings, old roads, stone works or trails. Theirs is more a keep and destroy attitude.  So these lovely places, reclaimed by the bush, are gone or disappearing.

But to really be where these hopeful people stood, to see how beautifully made these structures were, still standing 250 years later and all built with slave labor, take a trip to STX, a different and welcoming island. Stop in on the Estate Whim Plantation  and the Lawaetz Museum. Leave a stone behind for the Silent Friends and be sure to take your imagination with you!

http://www.stcroixlandmarks.com/museums/estate-whim-museum
http://www.stcroixlandmarks.com/museums/lawaetz-family