Rediscover St. Thomas: Historic Town (Charlotte Amalie)

the heart of rock City St Thomas and the capital of the U.S Virgin Islands named in honor of the wife of King Christian V of Denmark the town is known for its deep water Harbor it's for this reason that it is said to have been a Haven for pirates and why today it is a famed cruise ship port of call but even with its advancements in modern-day Commerce Charlotte Amali still holds its historic charm throughout the town, centuries-old buildings and structures still exist allowing residents and visitors alike to experience a town as it was during its Colonial period and its buildings like this one that will be the focus of today's show hello everyone I'm Janisha John and welcome to another episode of ReDiscover Saint Thomas now today we're taking a break from the hiking and nature tours to explore and learn about the historic buildings that are significant in this town today we'll be touring black bear's Castle a National Historic Landmark to learn of its Pirates historic manor houses and beautiful Botanical Gardens our guide today is Mr. Felipe Ayala and he's already waiting for us so let's not keep him waiting let's go.

Felipe Ayala is an expert when it comes to this area and many of the historic sites on the island yeah this is black bear's castle and I know it to be a bed and breakfast could you tell us a little bit more about the importance of this building but you know what's funny about the the the tower was originally called Sky Sports Tower sky sport which translates in Danish to Sky

Tower was a watchtower for the Harbor today has the popular lore of the black bear the pirate Edward Teach who um roamed our Waters not necessarily the Danish West Indian Waters but the Caribbean in general and the towers named after him as a sort of an island lore but it had nothing to do with piracy the tower was built as a watchtower to see what enemy ships are sailing into the harbor and also to protect against an evading Force landed on the great north side bay properly known as Megan's Bay today if an opposing the force landed there and came over the hill black bridge Tower was sort of like your first line of defense to protect the small Danish Kong only against that okay so would it be considered relative to like a fort it's part of the fortification system built by the Danes keep in mind that according to 16th and 17th-century Warfare four Christian our oldest known building was not adequate to protect the island so this Tower serves as a watchtower and then there

were two smaller batteries at the entrance of the harbor they sort of fortified the

Danish Colony okay now I'm in this building itself what are some things that we will be seeing today and learning about oh well this is my favorite neighborhood the city of Charlotte Maya is built on Three, Hills divided by two natural gutters and then divided again into quarters which are Danish subdivisions our tour today will be in the oldest section of town which is called cogen's quarter water yes already translates into English as King's quarter the other two are Juan against and conferences or queens and Crown Prince um conferences quarter and we'll take a look at the merchant homes in this area can I get a sense of what life was like back in the 17th and 18th century and give you a glimpse into some of the period details of the homes in this area okay

I'll start this way our first stop on this walking tour is villanaughton it was built in the The 1800s by a Scottish engineer today it's one of 16 houses in Charlotte Amali that were built using the stone brick method foreign this house was built in 1861 as the home of Robert Notman he was a Scottish engineer who came to help work on the West Indian Company dock as we know it in those days it was called the French stock but he built the house here and the house is one of 16 built in a stone and brick construction method

most of the buildings before that were built out of rubble masonry or wood but then around 1848 with the start of the applicant Cathedral was also the same year as the emancipation of slavery a new construction style came in which is very chic and very popular

for that era and it used Native stone called Blue [ __ ] trimmed with yellow ballast brick used to wait for the house of ships sailing from Europe to the Caribbean and offloaded here the bricks were sold for very high building prices you kind of had to have some coin to be able to build one of these houses but this was one of 16 houses in Charlotte that Malia built in this architectural style so the museum properties on BlackBerry till we're fortunate to have different examples of architectural Styles and then this one being one of our

showcase because of the yellow brick and stone construction and when you think of the colors like the yellow the ocher color break with our beautiful native Stone which is a deep blue and it sets it off all the buildings are Caribbean Georgian hip roofs cornices all the classical details so the brick and the stone worked well together all right well this house is owned by the Virgin Islands Inns um which is Vernon and Michael Ball Father and Son team and what they did was they bought a series of houses they're the original owners of the hotel 1829 and which is in St Thomas a landmark for its fine culinary experiences but they show an opportunity to introduce residents to our Island and um guest um tourist guests to what St Thomas was like we realized at that time that there are a lot of people that did not know about St Thomas's historic past so they created a series of Tours offered on cruise ships into locals, alike I'm showcasing our Rich history and our period furniture and we give you sort of an introduction here to antique furniture objects of art Florence fauna architecture

So by the time, people get ready for their shopping experience on Main Street they live they know where they know hair except they're from here they're one of us okay now according to Ayala the layout of villa batman honors its curator Philip Stern The Villa is also furnished with the many antique pieces from storm's collection which is said to be one of the largest collections of Caribbean antique furniture Ayala says storm's collection was started in the 1940s by his mother who began collecting all furniture pieces people throughout pieces

like this living room suite which Ayala says is the most important piece in the villa the tea table is also from Barbados and it's a wonderful one because it has very interesting legs okay and there's a lot of zoomorphic influences in furniture and these are snakehead feet on pads so when you look at the tea yeah I'm coming out and then it sits on a pad just giving it a nice look but the table is also a tilt-top one not in use this is a pin on the the bottom that you can pull it flip the top up and push it against the sides of the wall okay okay and what about this chair here this chair this is one of my favorite chairs this is from the Birch collection this chair is made out of lignum Vitae and Magnum Vitae is one of the hardest-known Woods it was used in the making of machine parts like boat parts and propellers because it was so hard and we have the Vitae trees growing outside it's an indigenous tree but notice the lines are very clean very angular because lignum Vitae was so hard that you had to carve it while it was green once it was dry they did not have to Sauce in the day to cut into the wood so that's why the lines are very straight and then we have an antique mahogany plant stand it kind of has the spiral turnings of a bedpost and if you look at it as convex-concave which skills post return on the lathe so you notice it has a very thin bead on it that's like a signature made unseen

Korea actually

Thurmannwhoh was a very famoussynchronyy Joiner a Christian Joinerwho was known

for posts like that so tell me where does the influence the inspiration come to design this furniture like this for those who created these back in the day you know it's wonderful there were style books I'm from Europe at the time keep in mind that these were colonies of European countries so the plantocracy of that time and the merchant class one of the furniture they remembered from at home but after the emancipation of slavery in 1848 a lot of local influences came in the former slaves now Friedman who were joiners and Craftsmen that made.

the furniture started to look in nature and on the island around them for a lot of the inspiration so you're going to see fur and tendrils and leaves and all of that kind of stuff carved into the furniture and what's funny about it is that when European furniture was made they had to be perfect they had to be I'm very exact in the West Indian pieces one of the things that showed that they're handmade and gave them their charm today is what we call hand prints you'll see like where well this side looks a little bit like that size but there's a little I'm changing it so you have all of those things and today that's what people look at you can tell that somebody carved it by hand and was inspired you'll see some of the classical details like presuming and all those other elements into the furniture the queen and legs and the turnings but then you're going to see like a sprig of like mahogany leaves or Fern leaves or Palm leaves or zoomorphic influences like animals it's we have a little washstand that has little animal feed so yeah you can see what like a goat was running behind somebody was like oh well

we'll put that on it but that's what makes the furniture interesting that's called The Juice your natural inspiration from around you functions that you saw and I guess that makes it more relatable to us today exactly and they're always Indian pieces now today West Indian Furniture in the marketplace is like going through the roof it is one of the most collected pieces of furniture in terms of the international market and it's starting to finally, command the prices for furniture of this quality when you think they're handmade solid Woods most of them impervious to bugs and termites we made very very fine pieces of

furniture in the West Indies and finally I think everybody here is starting to appreciate the form the layout of villa batman is typical of the 1800s a large Central parlor table surrounded by rocking chairs and other Furniture kept along the sides of the walls let's say you're entertaining and you needed more space you can move the table out it kind of creates it like a big Ballroom area yeah in the middle of it and then what's wonderful is this is a copy it's the only reproduction in the collection but we honored the local craftsmen that are continuing the trade by having it here this one was made by George Munson as a copy of frenzy coolianises who's an old local family her parlor table and it's wonderful but George made the furniture out of local mahogany and in the same tradition as the historic pieces were made so we honor the new joiners Ambro Chevrier Ken um Kent Lawrence Hughes people like that who are making furniture today we honor them by having this piece in the collection this is beautiful it's nice and you can see the grains in the woods it's really wonderful and then the other side the dining room now this the entire floor was originally the living room or the Parlor the dining room for this house is the downstairs opposite the kitchen and kitchens in those days were built separately because of the hot heat they gave off and to keep the fire from burning the rest of the house but because of the tour configurations of the house we just made the whole room and what's fun about our dining room table is three tables this is only two of them if we added the third one it would have to go down the center of the room but the tables were from Trinidad and when the governor's wife of Trinidad in the 40s and 50s was redecorating the Mansion she was going to sell the dining room suite and Mrs. Durham with her Eagle Eye and social connections recognized this was happening so she went into an auction and she bought on the table and there are three individual tables that are joined together underneath and they're all to the top so when not in use they can just flip up and put them onto the side and then we have in the corner a crucial sideboard innocent Quarry was one of the top Furniture producers in the Caribbean, they made I don't think people realize how wealthy the cruise plantocracy was so they demanded the finest Furniture assistant Corey Barbados.

Trinidad Martinique produce some of the finest Furniture in the Caribbean and seeing Corey what's wonderful about the Christian pieces is that they're clean lines andsimpley I mean when you think of our Danish Heritage Denmark is known for just really simple but the quality of woods and elegance in their furniture and this is exhibited in that small Christian sideboard another piece in the space that needs mentioning is this small stand yes it's plain and may not have much personality but what makes it a popular piece is the fact that it was touched by a former U.S president they used to come here when the Clintons were in office to go and have like a New Year's on a retreat and I'm making space so there was a restaurant.

they just used to show up all the just show up at a restaurant secret sedrives drive them crazy but they went down the hill to Zorba's restaurant and when everything they orwas dered off the menu twe're were out of that day because nobody expects the president just to show up but that piece at the end of the day he was such a good sport about it he posed with the wait staff of that um restaurant next to that piece of furniture and we inherited it shortly after soeally wonderful it's famous it is we'll touch it that make it famous again okay so tell me I see you have some well listen let me show youis is one of my favorite ones this is an old print by Fritz Mel B and it s the three quarters of the hill so this is condens and corn princess and we started right here this is skype's work Tower or as we cablackboardsbeards we're actually in this this is villanotman okay and this is Crown house right across the street and Peter Scholtenholten lived in that house and then this is the hotel 1829 right here thHogansonganson and government house will be in thi,s area wow and then this is the story captainsburg this is The Wolf of villa Santa Anna so you kind of can see that notheally changed in our town in a few hundred years everythis for the same when one of the earliest descriptions of life in Saint Thomas is that but JP Nissen who lived right down the set he was also one of our neighbors JP Nissen wrote an account of life here in the 1800s and he said thae the city of Chalotte .

Amalia was very worldly that even the slaves were speaking several language that new houses are being built every day and the harbor was full of ships so when you think of Saint Thomas in 2010 nothing's changed exactly and you can see I'm the Danish flag I'm a student there I'm Fort Christian is right there this is the legislature building so the fort sits right in the back and it's painted white and then the bustling Harbor scenes I always love this because

the artist was sothere'shere's a lot from birds and everything but also our most famous painters the thought of impressionism Camille Pizarro this is a print of his um Camille Pizarro was born on St ,Thomas he attended our local synagogue and painted early license scenes of life here with another artist called Fritz y who did that one and the two of them were like good Boyhood f,riends they traveled the Cariand bbean won a little trip together before Pizarro moved to France and found that the impressionist art movement so his ability to capture life in his paintings I'm convinced that it happened because he grp on in the Virgin Islands on St Thomas our beautiful sunshine sunshiny days and sunlight coming through he captured in his painting So when he goes to Europe and you know you think of gray days and all of that youally see where the light comes from what's wonderful about this pa ting is the Frenchman's Reef Hotel would be right here.

this is our West Indian company doc so this is the era where I'm yakhaven Grand and I just

like right over there so you can kind of see where it is today soeally a wonderfthe ul

difference it is and you can see they were growing sugar in that area and when you think

of the areas called sugar estate now we kn why now this is St Thomas in 1856. [MForeignoreign

ackman's house and we're standing in what ould have been a child's room back in 1861. now come take a look this is actual oripiecepieces of clothing used in those times a communion dress and some boots and gare tely amazing I'm truly impressed

we're just about through with this Villa but there is still one more feature of the house that's worth highlighting well our balcony is probably the most famous inet on this house the balcony was imported from New Orleans. by Mr Warren who also imported balconies from Scotland and lived in the other quarter but when you look at the armed wrought iron balconiestheirnd the intricacies of it we realize how similar it looks to the City of New Orleans and we have a lot this one has a very popular Garland and lower Motif and it was a balcony of choice for the tourism Department because they shot an ad campaign for the Virgin Islands from this balcony and it's also one of two in St Thomas the house next door has the same balcony so we always them tease and said they were keeping up with the Jo they love the balcony so much that they decided they got to have one too but we also have our original fountain in the garden and that one was installed by the cave family in 1910 and we have an old photograph showing the um this uh the fountain and the Mr cave one of the descendants of the family came to Saint Thomas one day this is another funny story with a picture he had a picture of his father standing next to this balcony and his mother sitting by that

Fountain and he was asking people downtown like where do you know where this is and nobody knew the first one he was showing was the fountain nobody knew where it was but there was a gentleman in the post office who used to live in this house named Sam s who sweated he said oh my God that's my house so he invited them up and then they the Mr cave took the descendants took pictures in the same spots their grandparents were standing in so it was a really nice story .

but the fountains originally it used to have water lilies with it and notice it has the same yellow ballast brick and then the wonderful urn and then our Gardens flew with mango trees and the palm trees yeah yeah um there's a house in the other um quarter called La Tanya because they have the largest stand of Tire Palms in the historic district they have like 27 palm trees in their Garden wow and all of those and then we also have a Bay Rum tree with the peeling bark so we try to introduce a lot of local flora and fauna into the garden so we have a couple iguanas in there and some little birds just for flavor in the garden as well

so can we can we actually go down and yeah I'm watching you can walk through the gardens but and then we also show you the three Queen sculpture okay so we have more exploring today

after a quick walk through the gardens we come across this beautiful area that was once believe it or not an abandoned parking lot well this is my favorite part of the tour these are the three Queen sculptures and this is a gift from the ball family to the Virgin Islands um they funded the sculpture and this whole area was an abandoned parking lot it was all really poorly

graded and just ugly and everybody would come to the museums and then they felt that once they came outside the fences that's it where am I so I spoke to Michael and his dad one day and I said you know I have an idea for a sculpture which will honor the very best of the Virgin Islands I designed this culture it was cast by Richard hallier who did all our pirate sculptures and he also did the sculptures at the Olympic Village in um Denver so we're very happy to have his work here but the three queens um this was Queen Mary and when we were kids in school we sang the Queen Mary song Where Are You Gonna Burn yeah so the sculpture honors her Queen Mary is the central figure and she faces sin Corey which is 40 miles to our south from this location so um the three queens I'm there a cast in bronze and they were unveiled failed on St Thomas every Christmas we have Miracle On Main Street so the in 2005 the miracle was the unveiling of the sculpture and we celebrated it right before America Elementary started we had a small reception in the garden for it an unbearable sculpture so today this whole area has been gentrified and we have

Queen Mary as the focal points of the garden so guests coming through the museum tours are then toward the properties they exit onto this area because we have another building full of um Britannia and then we also have crown house the governor's mansion is right down the street so we invite people to come up into this area and see all these wonderful art Treasures in the garden

and now it definitely looks like a continuation it's rather than a parking lot exactly

well we're heading towards one of my favorites and you're going to hear that a lot in the store like my favorite my favorite I love this neighborhood okay well one of the um the best preserved houses in the district is Crown house yes um it's the home of Robert and Donna De Young today but historically was the home of Peter Von schulten who freed our slaves without permissions the Danish King and Jurgen Levine wrote also another Danish Governor lived in this house it's the second oldest house in the neighborhood I'm built in 1740 but this house has a unique love for Saint Thomas in the history of um with St Thomas because of the two Dormers every painting that shows the city of Charlotte Maya in congens always points out this house because it has the two very recognizable dormers on their roof so you can always spot and when we look at the Mel B picture you can always see Crown house because of the two and it has these wonderful

Royal Palms and antique land fixture right over the gate and wonderful gate but the young [ __ ]

Architects restored this house so lovingly the restoration took a very long time but this is the end result and it's beautiful it's truly truly magnificent house exterior and interior okay we're looking at what looks like a million but this is 99 Cents well you know you have to be from St Thomas to know this but they're really 103 of them like false advertising no but there are the 99 steps and St Thomas is famous for these step streets we have 45 of them but the 99 steps are most famous because they're the ones made out of yellow ballast brick they're the only ones made out of the yellow ballo's break but as much as we think that the 99 steps of the 103 steps are great this is small compared to the step streets in drone against quarter which can boasts up to 145 157 steps at a time bread goddess step streets I'm convinced if you want to do step aerobics two times one up one down that's all you need you'll look like you but the 99 steps important to us because they're really unique step streets and a whole are unique to the Danish

West Indies Puerto Rico is the only other island in the Caribbean that has the step Street they have one step Street next to El convento we have 40 45 of them wow wow and because of our ours trade when we were walking down earlier we're talking about you know all the hilly and all that this is why they couldn't create our roads up to these areas so they just created a set of

Step streets called stratas and so when you think of Danish translation God I mean straight Strada step straight so the famous 99 steps go all the way down to congens we're standing on top of drawn against God right now which is Queen Street and at the bottom of the hill because of the governor's

mansion is congen scada King Street and uh to treat at the end because it's worth walking down at least we're going down the steps it could have been worse it could have been running out coming up and we've done that too but um it's sort of like Charlamagne has a feeling of an old

Italian Step Town like a hill town to have these wonderful buildings and then all these steps

Little Steps reach up and down the steps well it is one thing I do admire about St Thomas you know being able to walk practically almost everywhere in the town you know it's it's really nice though

here is still so much to see and learn about in this historic area of Charlotte

Amali unfortunately we've reached the end of this show but not to worry we'll be back to wrap up this amazing tour of Blackbeard's Castle so until next time make sure to cherish your home these beautiful islands but above all cherish each other