History

Rich History Dating Back 5,000 Years

The area now known as the Estates of Judith’s Fancy has an interesting and varied history dating back to 2500 B.C. The Estates of Judith’s Fancy forms the east side of the Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve. Over 100 years of archeological investigations have demonstrated that the Salt River area was the focus of the most extensive and intensive prehistoric occupation in the U.S. Virgin Islands and was the center for one of the largest Indigenous Caribbean people’s settlements.  Many artifacts dating back to that time have been found in private plots in Judith’s Fancy.

A group whom some now refer to as the Igneri people settled in St. Croix 2,000 years ago. Later, the ancestors of the people now known as Taino lived at Salt River Bay. During the time they lived there, scholars believe the area served as the seat of a chiefdom, which contained an important religious structure, and a ball and dance court.

Some sources suggest that people related to the modern-day Kalinago people of the Lesser Antilles also inhabited the area around the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.  These were the indigenous people the Spanish most often labeled with the inaccurate term “Caribes,” or Caribs, the origin of the word Caribbean.

The First Encounter – Columbus’s Second Voyage

Judith Fancy’s European history began on November 14, 1493, with what is considered as the first recorded conflict between Europeans and Native Americans. Christopher Columbus, sailing on his second voyage to the New World with a fleet of seventeen ships, dropped anchor at the entrance to what is now called Salt River Bay, on the western side of Judith’s Fancy. Columbus sent a landing party in a long-boat to capture some of the inhabitants. On their way back to the ship from the shore with a group of women and children held as captives, they encountered a canoe filled with the people they thought were “Caribs,” and a fierce battle took place. After killing several indigenous people, and suffering one casualty among their own ranks due to an arrow fired in self-defense by those in the canoe, the Spanish returned to their ship with the captives. Christopher Columbus named the island Santa Cruz, which is Spanish for “Holy Cross.”

Site of a Former Sugar Plantation

Estate Judith’s Fancy is a former sugarcane plantation whose great house was built in 1733. Its surviving property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, with the significance of being the location of government headquarters during the French occupation of St. Croix during 1651-65, under the Knights of Malta’s ownership, as well as for preserving remnants of typical buildings of a sugar plantation.

The Knights of Malta’s headquarters were located at Judith’s Fancy, then named Rosiere. In 1665 the Knights of Malta sold all of their privileges and possessions to the French West India Company. In 1733 St. Croix was sold to the Danish West India and Guiena Company.  Estate Judith’s Fancy was known as Hemmers Plantation or Hemmersfryd in 1766 and was patented to Jens Pieter Hekimers. Pieter Heyliger, who was an extensive land owner during the 18th century, named the estate Judith’s Fancy after his daughter. Records reveal Judith’s Fancy still in operation as a sugar plantation until 1889 with production decreasing. By the turn of the century, like many other plantations in St. Croix, Judith’s Fancy ceased to operate as a sugar plantation.

The ruins of the factory at Judith’s Fancy are of architectural significance because of the classic revival details, the plan, the method of construction and the use of local building materials, all typical of sugar factories in the Virgin Islands at this period. The property includes stonework ruins from a sugar factory, a windmill which drew water, a chimney of a later steam mill, and a small house. The windmill used to crush the sugar cane is also typical of the many conical structures that remain on St. Croix.

Development of The Estates of Judith’s Fancy

The Oxford Corporation, a development company, purchased most of the Estate of Judith’s Fancy in 1957 for the purpose of establishing a residential and hotel development. At that time, the plantation was being used primarily for cattle grazing. The hotel development never came to fruition and the land intended for that use was purchased by the US Government and folded into the Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve, encompassing 912 acres on both sides of Salt River Bay.

In the original survey made in the process of establishing the subdivision in 1956, the Estate of Judith’s Fancy was found to contain about 383 acres. A single large salt pond, later transformed by dredging, encompassed both of the existing two lagoon areas and the small salt pond found today on the Salt River side of Judith’s Fancy.

In 1958, the first Restrictive Covenants were recorded and in 1969 the Estates of Judith’s Fancy Owners Association, Inc. was incorporated as a non-profit Virgin Islands corporation and took management responsibilities and title to the common properties and rights-of-way from the Oxford Corporation in 1970.

The Estates of Judith’s Fancy Owners’ Association, Inc. is governed by a Board of Directors of nine volunteers who are members of the association. Using funds collected from annual assessments, the JFOA Board maintains the subdivision’s private roads, provides 24-hour guard service at the entrance gate, maintains roadside grass mowing, and conducts a variety of administrative and technical services related to compliance with the Restrictive Covenants and by-laws and community enhancement. The Board typically meets on a monthly basis and an annual members’ meeting is held the last Wednesday in February each year.