In the 1990s, after being abandoned for more than a century on a windy point in Virgin Gorda, the Copper Mine was falling apart. Restoration of some of the ruins began in 1998, but it took five years, two projects, and the help of experts from Cornwall, England to get the site opened as a national park in 2003.
The effort cost $90,000 to complete, and the costs didn’t end there. According to the 2012 budget estimates, the mine site needs $371,300 in 2013 for further restoration.
While most may not be as iconic as the Copper Mine, there are about 180 recorded sites of historical interest in the territory, said Dr. Michael Kent, a historian and lecturer at H. Lavity Stoutt Community College.
The sites range from crumbling, anonymous portions of wall to a partially restored sugar plantation, and span not only time, but also a range of uses and states of repair.
Many are maintained by their owners; others sit unmarked and neglected. Some are used more or less as they have been since they were built. Some house businesses; others are marked by plaques and visited by taxi tours.
The only four sites with strict formal protection are the national parks, although Town and Country Planning collaborated with other agencies to assemble a list of about 15 to 20 sites seen as worthy of government protection in 2005, said Ronald Beard, deputy director of the Town and Country Planning Department.
This summer, government appointed an ad hoc Cultural Heritage Committee to take stock of some of the territory’s historic and cultural sites, and members have been “assessing” potential historic sites around the territory, said Brenda Lettsome-Tye, acting director of culture.
Legal framework
Though there’s no law specifically designed to define or protect VI historic sites, the law doesn’t ignore them entirely.
In the 2004 Physical Planning Act, the Planning Authority is directed to compile “a list in respect of buildings or sites which are of special interest.” This could include a site, building, part of a building, or a group of buildings that are seen as important for preserving the territory’s “architectural, cultural, historic and archaeological heritage,” according to the law.
Sites on this list would be legally protected from demolition or any work that would “materially affect its character as a building of special interest.”
So far, the authority hasn’t compiled any such list, said former head of the Planning Authority Board Edmund Maduro, who recently had to step down because he had served the maximum allowed term of six years.
There is also a system in place for protecting historic sites on private property, though some preservationists find it lacking as it depends largely on landowners policing themselves.
When filing development applications, landowners are required to indicate whether there are any potential historic sites near the development. If they report that they may have something of historic value on their property, TCP staff would conduct a site visit, and the Planning Authority would give advice to avoid disturbing the ruins, Mr. Beard said.
However, this system leaves room for individuals to bulldoze potential historic sites or ruins on their own property, which happens regularly, according to Dr. Kent, the HLSCC instructor.
Mr. Maduro, who served on the Planning Authority for six years, said he couldn’t recall the board blocking a development because of a historic site.
There are, however, cases where land with a historic site on it “belongs to people who would be happy to turn it over to the government,” Mr. Maduro said, adding that he would like to see government doing more to preserve such sites.
In the process, however, government has to avoid treading on people’s individual property rights, he added. Elected officials share this concern.
“A National Democratic Party government will develop an overall strategy for the incorporation of the territory’s historical sites into its tourism product,” said the NDP’s election manifesto last year. “This strategy must address the fact that many of these sites are on private property.”
Laws elsewhere
In many other countries, heritage preservation laws are much stricter than they are here.
In the United Kingdom, for example, many private buildings are listed as English Heritage sites. Building owners are considered guardians, and have to get consent “for anything that might risk detracting from what makes that building special,” according to EH’s website.
In the United States, a register of historic sites lists places, buildings and objects that are protected by law. The US National Parks Service says the US Virgin Islands is home to 86 such sites, which may qualify for some federal grants and tax breaks.
But in the Caribbean, protection for historic sites is a mixed bag.
Many smaller countries and territories lack comprehensive preservation legislation. According to an Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States report, even St. Kitts and Nevis, whose Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park was named a World Heritage Site in 1999, lacks a comprehensive framework for protecting cultural, historic and other sites.
Jamaica’s historic preservation movement, however, goes back to 1909, when the first register of historic sites, buildings and monuments was published in that country’s Gazette. A statutory board to oversee historic sites was created in 1958, now called the Jamaica National Heritage Trust. The organisation’s current register lists about 200 protected cultural and historic sites.
In Barbados, as in the VI, historic sites fall under a planning law, but the law requires planning officials to work with the Barbados National Trust when updating the register of protected sites. The latest register has 11 historic sites, five of which are managed by the non-profit trust.
One authority
In the VI, although no strategy or official register has been published yet, one goal of the ad hoc Cultural Heritage Committee is to bring matters related to historic sites under one authority, Ms. Lettsome-Tye said.
Currently, some sites on Crown land fall under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Labour. VI museums, on the other hand, have been handled under the Premier’s Office, since tourism is part of its portfolio.
Legislators haven’t forgotten their pledge to use the VI’s historic sites as an added draw for visitors, said at-large representative Archie Christian.
“There continues to be a discussion [within government] as to how we can incorporate these sites into our tourism product,” Mr. Christian said.
In Mr. Christian’s career appraising property for sale, he said, he’s only appraised one or two properties with historic sites on them.
That rarity presents a problem for government officials when they want to buy a parcel with ruins on it, he said. With few sales of historic property on record, it’s hard to set a fair price.
“Personally, I believe we should try to come to some arrangement with property owners,” he said. For example, there could be partnerships between owners and government, with government managing sites and sharing any revenue with owners, he explained.
The National Parks Trust Act allows for such partnership agreements to be created, said NPT Director Joseph Smith-Abbott, but so far the provision hasn’t been used.
National parks
Four historic sites are owned and managed entirely by the government through the NPT, said Ronald Massicott, a programme coordinator at the NPT. They are at Mount Healthy, the territory’s last windmill site; Little Fort and the Copper Mine in Virgin Gorda; and the territory’s only marine park, the wreck of the RMS Rhone.
These four sites are the only historic sites in the territory that have legal protection: As in other national parks, no one is allowed to remove anything from them, Mr. Massicott said.
Government also manages four of the territory’s museums: the VI Folk Museum on Main Street, the Old Government House, the Lower Estate Sugar Works Museum and the VI Maritime Museum at H. Lavity Stoutt Community College.
Moving forward, government has identified some priority sites for incorporation into “heritage tourism,” said Janis Brathwaite-Edwards in July, when she was the tourism liaison officer with the Premier’s Office.
Asked about priority sites, Ms. Brathwaite-Edwards listed St. Philip’s Anglican Church in Kingstown first.
The site is known as the first church for freed Africans in the Americas, but goes beyond just the church site itself, Ms. Brathwaite-Edwards said. There are ruins of storehouses on the hills above the chapel, as well as a burial ground. She said officials are conducting additional research in the UK.
The Lower Estate Sugar Works is slated for “continuing restoration,” while officials have “made insight” into Fort Purcell near Pockwood Pond, commonly called the Dungeon, Ms. Brathwaite-Edwards said.
She added that officials have also looked at several sites in Anegada, including the conch shell mounds, which date to the 1800s, the Faulkner House and some wells.
“At the end of our restoration – or revitalisation – process, we’ll have a story,” Ms. Brathwaite-Edwards said of the Kingstown church. St. Philip’s was built in 1840, and the structure has sustained damage over the years.
In 2000, Dr. Kent helped install wooden supports at the site, but its years being roofless and exposed have caused major damage. A complete restoration wouldn’t be possible, as it would likely damage the remaining ruins, he said.
Living ruins
The site is still one of the most popular for visitors, and government would like to see it utilised even more, Ms. Braithwaite-Edwards said.
“What we would like to see is this site come alive,” she said, adding that it could be used for church and community events. “We want to see some activities staged here so that the site becomes a living site.”
What are “living” historic sites? Several are in use now, such as the Callwood Rum Distillery in Cane Garden Bay, which still distils Arundel Rum on some of the same equipment that’s been on the premises since the mid-1800s.
The distillery is popular with cruise ship passengers, who visit the site by the safari-bus-load, taking photos and sampling different types of cane rum. Similarly, the ruins of a 1700s Josiahs Bay plantation now house a restaurant called the Secret Garden and an art gallery.
The Sugar Mill Hotel in Carrot Bay was a sugar plantation when it was built in about 1640, but it has been a working hotel for more than 30 years. Since buying it in 1982, Jeff and Jinx Morgan have tried to stay true to the feeling of the old estate, Ms. Morgan said.
To that end, they’ve incorporated the top of the old mill round into the hotel pool, kept the mill’s old machinery intact, and kept the terraces that were used to support cane planting plots.
Although the historical aspect of the site does seem to be important for some of their guests, Ms. Morgan said for them it’s about more than just business.
“If you have a piece of history on your property, you have an obligation to see it taken care of,” she said.
History enthusiasts
Meanwhile, community groups such as the Historic Preservation Society continue to work with limited funding to take care of the VI’s historic sites. The group was a driving force behind the 2007 restoration of the Lower Estate Sugar Works, and members recall it being a costly project.
“Anytime you’re talking about these big projects, it’s going to cost a lot of money,” said Jennie Wheatley, an HPS member. She said the group’s latest project is a restoration of the Planter’s Burial Ground in Johnsons Ghut. The group worked with volunteers to clear brush, repair masonry, and catalogue graves dating back to 1760.
But, Ms. Wheatley said, expensive restoration projects aren’t the only option for these sites.
“Sometimes it can be as simple as a plaque,” she said. “It doesn’t cost much to put up some markers and clean it up.”
View Some Historic Sites of the Virgin Islands in a larger map
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