St. John's Episcopal Church
About this property
St. John's Episcopal Church, historically known as St. John's Anglican Church, is a church in Christiansted, Virgin Islands. Although most of the current building dates to 1868, a church has been located on the site since the 18th century. It and its adjacent graveyard were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. It is located within the Christiansted Historic District, to which it is also a contributing property. The land that would become St. John's Anglican Church was purchased in 1752 by the Church of England, who wanted to establish a presence on Saint Croix. Although the island was then part of the Danish West Indies, there was a large, growing population of English, Irish, and Scots inhabitants. This was the first permanent parish successfully established by the Church of England on Saint Croix; for this reason, it has been nicknamed the "Mother Church of the Diocese". The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts funded the church in its first years; the group felt that Christianity in colonial areas was neglected and that morals of citizens there were too relaxed. The parish was established in Christiansted in 1760 when the Reverend Cecil Wray Goodchild traveled from Teddington, England, to become Rector of the Parish. With Goodchild's arrival, the church was placed under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London. This original church was a simple cross-shaped wooden structure placed upon a brick foundation. Goodchild stayed in this role until his retirement in 1785; he and his wife are buried in the churchyard. Between 1765 and 1773, United States Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and his family attended worship services here intermittently, as their residence was located nearby. Hamilton also attended the church's school. The 1768 death of Hamilton's mother, Rachel Faucette, was recorded in St. John's burial registry; however, she was buried alongside relatives on Tuite's Grange Plantation, located outside of Christiansted. St. John's has been damaged or destroyed several times since its initial construction. The first of these was on August 31, 1772, when a hurricane destroyed the wooden church structure entirely. Hamilton would later publish a recount of the hurricane's devastation in the Royal Danish American Gazette; it was this account that gained him enough recognition to enable him to enter high society and fund his education in the United States. The new church was crafted from sturdier Bermudan sandstone and was completed in 1779; this larger building could now seat 500 worshippers. Records exist of the establishment of a "poor-school" prior to 1796 and a poorhouse in 1810.
Location
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was St. John's Episcopal Church listed on the National Register?
St. John's Episcopal Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 3, 2016.
What type of historic resource is St. John's Episcopal Church?
St. John's Episcopal Church is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for St. John's Episcopal Church?
The period of significance for St. John's Episcopal Church is recorded as the industrial era.
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