The United States Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and a territory of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles. The islands have a tropical climate.
Charlotte Amalie, located on St. Thomas, is the capital and the largest city of the United States Virgin Islands. It was founded in 1666 as Taphus. In 1691, the town was renamed to Charlotte Amalie after the Danish queen Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel (1650–1714). It has a deep-water harbor that was once a haven for pirates and is now one of the busiest ports of call for cruise ships in the Caribbean, with about 1.5 million-plus cruise ship passengers landing there annually. Protected by Hassel Island, the harbor has docking and fueling facilities, machine shops, and shipyards and was a U.S. submarine base until 1966. The Town has been inhabited for centuries. When Christopher Columbus arrived in 1493, the area was inhabited by Caribs, Arawaks, Ciboney and Taíno native peoples. It is on the southern shore at the head of Saint Thomas Harbor. In 2010 the city had a population of 18,481, which makes it the largest city in the Virgin Islands Archipelago. Hundreds of ferries and yachts pass by the Town each week.
Saint Thomas is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea, and a constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States. Along with surrounding minor islands, it is one of three county-equivalents in the USVI. Together with Saint John, it forms one of the districts of the USVI. The territorial capital and port of Charlotte Amalie is located on the island.
Saint John is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea and a constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States.
Hassel Island is a small island of the U.S. Virgin Islands, a United States territory located in the Caribbean Sea. Hassel Island lies in the Charlotte Amalie harbor just south of Saint Thomas and east of Water Island, with which it is part of the sub-district of Water Island.
The Legislature of the Virgin Islands is the territorial legislature of the United States Virgin Islands. The legislative branch of the unincorporated U.S. territory is unicameral, with a single house consisting of 15 senators, elected to two-year terms without term limits. The legislature meets in Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas.
Fort Christian is a Dano-Norwegian-built fort in Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Built 1672-1680, early in the first successful colonial establishment on the island, the fort served as a critical point of defense and government during the entire period of Dano-Norwegian, and later Danish, administration, which ended in 1917 with the sale of the islands to the United States. It currently holds the St. Thomas Museum, which holds artifacts and art of the Dano-Norwegian period. It was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1977.
Charlotte Amalie High School (CAHS) is a public high school housing a population of just over 1400 students, and over 130 members of faculty and staff. It is located in what is colloquially called the "town area" of the island of St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands. It is named after the official name for the "town area," Charlotte Amalie. It is a part of the St. Thomas-St. John School District. It is the territory's most populous high school.
St. Thomas Synagogue, officially Congregation Beracha Veshalom Vegmiluth Hasadim or The Hebrew Congregation of St. Thomas, is a historic Reform Jewish synagogue located at 2116 Crystal Gade, Queens Quarters, in Charlotte Amalie on the island of Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The synagogue building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997.
Fort Frederik, also known as Frederiksfort, is a U.S. National Historic Landmark in Frederiksted, United States Virgin Islands. It was built between 1752 and 1760 by Denmark-Norway to defend the economic interests of the natural deep water port of Frederiksted and to ward off pirates. It has red and white painted walls, making it quite different then yellow and white of Fort Christiansværn on the other side of the island. It is located at the north end of Frederiksted, in St. Croix, south of the junction of Mahogany Road and VI 631. It should not be confused with Frederiks Fort, Fortberg Hill, on St. John, which is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Christianshavns Vold is a former rampart which was part of the bastioned fortification ring which used to surround Copenhagen, Denmark. Running along the full south-eastern perimeter of Christianshavn and Holmen, it used to form a protective barrier towards the island of Amager. It consists of earthworks with 12 bastions and in front of it ran a moat, Stadsgraven, now forming a broad canal which separates Christianshavn from the rest of Amager. On the other side of Stadsgraven. on Amager, was a lower system of outworks called Christianshavns Enveloppe of which only the northern half survives. Along with Kastellet on the other side of the harbour, it is the only intact part of the fortification system.
Estate Thomas is a settlement adjacent to Charlotte Amalie on the island of Saint Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands.
Tutu, also known as Estate Tutu is one of the seven administrative subdistricts on Saint Thomas island in the United States Virgin Islands. It is located in eastern St. Thomas and is mostly made up of the second-largest town in the U.S.V.I., Anna's Retreat in the Tutu Valley, sometimes nicknamed Tutu. The word tutu, in Danish, means a trumpet-like conch shell which was used to call the slaves to work. According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2010 the population was 6,867, which is down from 8,197 in 2000 and further down from 9,100 in the U.S. Census of 1990. Tutu is known as a densely populated residential area and is second only to the territorial capital of Charlotte Amalie in terms of highest population density on the island of Saint Thomas. It is home to approximately 20 percent of the island population and has a total area of 1.5 square miles. There have been numerous excavations in an area known as the Tutu Archaeological Village Site, which has discovered numerous artifacts from the native Arawak people who inhabited the area in the pre-Columbian era.
New Herrnhut Moravian Church is a historic Moravian church in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. The Moravians, a Protestant religious group based in the town of Herrnhut in Saxony, began missionary work in 1732 in St. Thomas and were the first Protestants to begin missionary work among slaves and free Blacks in the Danish West Indies. Missionary work on St. Thomas was initially opposed by planters who didn't want slaves to receive education or religious instruction.
U.S. Virgin Islands Governor's Mansion may refer to any one of the three official residences owned by the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and provided to the Governor of the United States Virgin Islands. One residence is located on each of the three largest inhabited islands of this U.S. territory in the Caribbean. The U.S. Virgin Islands maintains more official gubernatorial residences than any other state or territory of the United States.
The Charlotte Amalie Historic District in Charlotte Amalie in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands is a 165.3 acres (0.669 km2) historic district which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Bordeaux, also known as Estate Bordeaux, is a historic former sugar plantation located on the West End of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. It was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The listing included three contributing buildings and a contributing structure.
Estate Hafensight, also known as Havensight, located south of Charlotte Amalie on Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. It is one mile (1.6 km) across Long Bay from Charlotte Amalie.
The property known as Estate Niesky was purchased in 1755 by the Moravian Church in Charlotte Amalie, during the era when America's original Thirteen Colonies were still part of the British Empire. The United States would not take possession of the islands until March 31, 1917, at which time Denmark sold the islands for the sum of $25,000,000 in United States gold coin.
