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 following properties serve as gubernatorial residences:
In 2019, incoming governor Albert Bryan announced that he and his wife would use Government House, Saint Croix as their primary family residence and that the other two properties would be used whenever the governor stayed on those islands. This marked the first time in 30 years that a governor's family chose to make their principal home in the Saint Croix residence. [2]
The historic Estate Catherineberg, a former sugar plantation outside Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas, had previously served as a residence for the Governor on that island while the Governor's working offices remained in Government House, Saint Thomas. Catherineberg is no longer used as a residence, however, and Government House is again the Governor's residence when staying in the territory's capital. In 2017 the government announced that the Catherineberg property would be opened to the public as a museum. [3]
The United States Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized 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 United States Virgin Islands are a group of several dozen islands and cays located in the Caribbean, about 1,100 miles (1,770 km) southeast of Florida, 600 miles (966 km) north of Venezuela, 40 miles (64 km) east of Puerto Rico, and immediately west and south of the British Virgin Islands.
Politics of the United States Virgin Islands takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic dependency, whereby the governor is the head of the territory's government, and of a multi-party system. United States Virgin Islands are an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs of the United States Department of the Interior. Executive power is exercised by the local government of the Virgin Islands. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
The United States Virgin Islands (USVI) is the only place under United States jurisdiction where the rule of the road is to drive on the left. However, virtually all passenger vehicles are left hand drive due to imports of U.S. vehicles.
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 Croix is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States.
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.
Christiansted is the largest town on Saint Croix, one of the main islands composing the United States Virgin Islands, a territory of the United States of America. The town is named after King Christian VI of Denmark.
The Diocese of Saint Thomas in the Virgin Islands is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church for the U.S. Virgin Islands. It is the only suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Washington.
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.
Stateside Virgin Islanders are West Indian Americans who hold US citizenship and who have migrated from the U.S. Virgin Islands to the continental United States and Hawaii, and their descendants.
Estate Catherineberg is a historic mansion on Denmark Hill in Charlotte Amalie, on Saint Thomas island, in the territory of the United States Virgin Islands.
Ryan is a populated place in Anna's Hope Village on the island of Saint Croix in United States Virgin Islands. It is about 45 mi (72 km) south of Charlotte Amalie, the country's capital city.
Kenneth Ezra Mapp is an American politician who served as the eighth elected Governor of the United States Virgin Islands, from 2015 to 2019. He is registered Republican, but ran as an independent.
Derek M. Hodge was an American Virgin Islander politician and lawyer who served as the Lieutenant Governor of the United States Virgin Islands for two terms from 1987 to 1995 under Governor Alexander Farrelly. The Virgin Islands Daily News called him a "towering figure in local politics," referring to his political career, which spanned several decades.
The 2018 U.S. Virgin Islands gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2018, to select the Governor of the United States Virgin Islands. The election was held concurrently with the 2018 United States midterm elections. On Election Day, November 6, Bryan earned 38.08% of the vote, with Mapp coming in second with 33.45%. Since no candidate received a majority of the general election vote, as required by the Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands, a runoff was held 14 days later between Albert Bryan Jr. and Incumbent Governor Kenneth Mapp, the top two vote-getters. On November 20, 2018, Democrat Albert Bryan Jr. won the runoff with 54.5% of the vote.
Albert Bryan Jr. is an American politician serving since 2019 as the ninth governor of the United States Virgin Islands.
Slob Historic District, near Christiansted, Virgin Islands, is a historic district which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. The listing included nine contributing buildings, three contributing structures, and a contributing site on 9 acres (3.6 ha).
Agnes Agatha Schuster King was a U.S. Virgin Islander historic preservationist and gardener. She served as the First Lady of United States Virgin Islands from 1975 to 1978 during the tenure of her husband, Governor Cyril King, the second popularly elected governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands. King focused on the restoration, preservation, and beautification of public gardens and other spaces during and after her tenure as first lady. The First Lady's Garden, located in front of the Government House on Saint Thomas was named in King's honor by the Legislature of the Virgin Islands.