Fort Restoration

Restoration of Fort Christian on St. Thomas is resuming this week after a nine month break. It's been under renovation since we moved here. From the outside it looks like they've managed to paint part of the building in that time. A large portion of the funding comes from the Federal Highway Administration. This struck me as strange initially because I recalled some rumor that the FHA didn't give money to states where the drinking age was lower than 21. The drinking age in the VI is 18. I looked into it briefly - as far as I can tell, only 10% of FHA funds are withheld as a penalty from states/territories that have a lower drinking age. Considering we don't have any highways, I guess we don't really need much FHA money....

 

Fort Christian is the oldest standing building in the Virgin Islands, built sometime between 1672 and 1680. The Fort helped protect the town from pirates and European armadas. It is in town near the current Legislature building and the vendors' plaza. Over the years it has served as a courthouse, a church, town hall, a jail and the governor's residence (not simultaneously, I assume...). The Virgin Islands Museum is also in the Fort, but since it hasn't been open in the last two years, we haven't stepped foot inside.