St. Croix’s Christiansted and Frederiksted have rarely looked better than they do in a DVD produced by Crucian Heritage and Nature Tours, which premiered Wednesday evening at the Caribbean Museum Art Center.
A crowd of more than 60 people – clearly more than the delighted organizers had expected – gathered in the garden courtyard of the museum to watch the DVD, which was the culmination of a long process and a lot of work, according to Frandelle Gerard, CHANT’s executive director.
As the sky faded from the soft, dark blue to black, Gerard called the audience to order and introduced the production.
CHANT began a program to train guides for walking heritage tours more than two years ago, and the video project was something that was always planned to accompany it, she said. As the tour guides went through training sessions led by local historian Wayne James, so did filmmaker Cathy Mae Sitaram of Sitaram Film Group.
The video, "The Heritage and Architecture of St. Croix: A CHANT Walking Tour," opens with James in Christiansted’s Market Square. He gives a brief rundown of the history of St. Croix – from the Arawak to the Danish in about 45 seconds – then begins detailing the remnants of that history that islanders live with today.
With quelbe music provided by Bully Petersen playing in the background, he details many Christiansted landmarks and a few that passersby might not realize are landmarks – including the Petheny Building, Government House, the Scale House and Danish Customs House, the Steeple Building and Fort Christiansvaern, and the Danish West Indies Trading Company building, along with buildings and areas with more humble roots, such as Water Gut and Free Gut.
In describing the architectural history and details of the buildings, James places them in the context of the island’s history.
Then the scene shifts to Frederiksted, which James explains has more of a Victorian influence in its architecture because so much of the town was destroyed in the Fireburn revolt of 1878.
But even with that there are plenty of traces of the older Frederiksted. Fort Frederick, the UCA/Stand Up Building, the Oscar E. Henry Customs House, the Victoria House and the Strand Street Waterfront Park were all included, their histories helping tell the history of the town.
And Frederiksted’s many churches were featured, including St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, St. Paul’s Episcopal and Holy Trinity Lutheran.
Gerard said filming James’ on-screen walks down the streets involved meeting in the downtown areas at 6 a.m. on Sunday mornings, when there was little traffic or street noise to interfere. The rest of James’ voice work was recorded in the studio by Al Baptiste.
Copies of the DVD can be purchased for $22 at the museum, at CHANT’s office, and at a variety of businesses around the island, Gerard said.
It was produced with funding from the V.I. Council for the Humanities and the V.I. Department of Tourism.
The audience greeted the presentation with warm applause, then queued up to purchase their own copies.
"We hope this will generate some good exposure for St. Croix, as it’s something you’ll want to have on your own shelf," Gerard said. "It’s something that in years your children’s children will be able to see where you came from."
Included in the audience was a group of 24 young adults from Denmark and their teachers. The group is taking part in a three-month community-building program. They spent a month on St. Thomas, where they took part in team-building and teamwork exercises, and just arrived on St. Croix for a month of volunteer work. They will finish up with a month of personal training on St. John.
The group is staying at the Sustainable Farm Institute at Creque Dam and was invited to attend the event, giving them a quick, in-depth view of the island where they’ll be spending the next month.
