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Click on this thumbnail to see a full sized pictures: Sunrise, map, sea side, sugar mill ruins, guard gate at entrance, aerial. This is an information informational site only. Refer to original documents or direct questions to the Judiths Fancy Owners Association.
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JudithsFancy Contact information |
EARLY
HISTORY The Estate of Judith’s Fancy
forms the east side of Salt River Bay which was the center for one of the
largest of the Carib
Indian settlements. The Carib
were a fierce and cannibalistic tribe that were the last dominant tribe on the
island. They were preceded by the more peaceful Arawak
(same group as Taino
tribe) whom they conquered and enslaved. Preceding the Arawak
were older tribal groups- most
notably the Igneri
- evidence of which has been found on St. Croix dating back to 2500 BC.
Carib village on the western
side of Salt River Bay and freed a number of Arawak slaves who joined his 2nd
Voyage. Later that day they encountered and had a very fierce, albeit small,
battle with a canoe of four Carib men and two women coming around the northern
tip of Judith’s Fancy on the east side of Salt River Bay. By the end of the
day’s dramatic events, Columbus departed giving the island its Spanish
namesake, “Santa Cruz” (“Holy Cross”), which was later translated to
French as “Saint Croix”. He also
named the site of the battle “Cabo de
las Flechas” or “Cape of the Arrows. During the succeeding 100
years, St. Croix was largely depopulated of Indians who were pressed into
slavery by the Spanish and moved to other islands. The island was then
intermittently controlled by the English (1645-1650) and Dutch (1642-1645), and,
very briefly thereafter, by the
Spanish. In 1650, the French drove out the Spanish. The following year, the French governor of other French Caribbean islands, M. de
Poincy, personally purchased St. Croix from the French crown, and, two year
later, he sold it to the Knights of
Malta who managed the island until
1665 when it was sold back to the French crown.
In 1695, faced with financial
losses on St. Croix, the French King ordered all colonists and slaves removed to
Ste Dominge (now Haiti) and the island remained largely unoccupied except for English
squatters until 1733 when it was purchased by the Danish West India and Guinea
Company from the French crown. First under Company control and then under
Danish crown control in 1755, St. Croix was divided into nine
“quarters” and about 225 plantation estates (typically of either 225 or 300
acres). Although the island prospered under Danish control, most plantations
were actually sold to English, French and Dutch planters from other islands. The estate believed to contain
the DuBois chateau became known as “Hemmers
Plantation” or “Hemmersfryd”.
In the late 1700’s, Pieter Heyliger, an extensive landowner
purchased the plantation and named it in honor of his daughter Judith
Aletta Benners, born Heyliger in 1762. Estate Judith’s Fancy ‘s land area
straddled the border of “Company Quarter” and “North-side Quarter From early Danish times
through 1900, like many other plantations on St. Croix, Judith’s Fancy
operated as a sugar plantation. The mill ruins evolved during this period
keeping pace with technology. Until
about 1850, sugar cane was crushed using animal-power and wind-power from the
formidable 30ft. diameter coral block windmill tower. In the second half of the
1800’s a massive coral block chimney four stories high and almost 10 ft square
at the bottom was constructed to adjacent to the old windmill tower which was
then used to supplant the new
steam-driven mill. MODERN
HISTORY The Oxford Corporation, a
development company, purchased most of the Estate of Judith’s Fancy in 1957
for the purpose of establishing a residential and hotel development. At that
time, the plantation was being used for primarily cattle grazing.” In the original survey made in
the process of establishing the subdivision in 1956, the Estate of Judith’s
Fancy was found to contain about 383 acres and consisting of Plots #1, #2 and #3
and the Remainder plot. A single
large salt pond later transformed by dredging encompassed both of the existing
two lagoon areas and the small salt pond found today on the Salt River side of
Judith’s Fancy. In 1958, the first Restrictive
Covenants were recorded covering Plots #1, #2 and #3 and the newly subdivided
plots #6 through #61 which had been part of the Remainder. At that time, all the
roadway areas were designated as Plot #4 and the entire beachfront was
designated as Plot #5. Beginning in 1959 and through
the early 1960’s, the Remainder plot (about 336 acres) was subdivided and its
lots received one-digit to three-digit numerical plot numbers between 6 and 341.
Plots #1 and #2 originally contained 12 and 30 acres, respectively, and were
subdivided into residential lots number in series beginning with “1” or
“2” followed by one or two letters of the alphabet. Plot #3 consisting of
about 4 1/2 acres which traversed the south end of the original salt pond on the
Salt River side appears to have been entirely transformed by dredging and was
eventually incorporated into a larger development lot.
By 1966, a “Master Plan”
drawing showed the Remainder plot fully subdivided into more or less the current
residential lots. A “Hotel Site” plot of about 37 acres is shown covering
all of the northern tip of the peninsula. A “Yacht Club & Marina Site”
reflecting dredging of the original saltpond and consisting of about 16 acres is
shown in the vicinity of the existing unfinished remains of a hotel with a
steeple-like tower. A further subdivision called “Sugar Bay Cay” including the existing plots
#240 through #251 and proposed plots #252 through #284 (later all re-combined) were located near the marina
designated lagoon.
Various past commercial
development on these lots all failed. The last attempt in 1986 prompted
conservation groups to push for a park rather than permit a hotel development.
In 1992 Congress established the Salt River Bay National Historical Park and
Ecological Preserve encompassing 912 acres on both sides of Salt River Bay. The
commercial development lots were included in the park boundary. As of this writing, these
properties are in foreclosure by the creditor banks of the failed hotel
development and are second on the priority list for purchase by the National
Parks Service as funds become available from Congress. The founding principal of the
Oxford Corporation, Mr. Tom Moseley still owns two lots within Judith’s Fancy
today and the 6.5 acre greathouse and mill ruins properties(Plots #89 and
#98) are owned by a private corporation controlled by Mr. Moseley’s family. The Estates of Judith’s
Fancy Owners’ Association, Inc. is governed by a Board of Directors of twelve
volunteer owner / members. Using funds collected from annual assessments, the
subdivision’s private roads are maintained, a 24 hour guard service is
provided at the entrance gate, roadside grass is cut, and a variety of
administrative and technical services related to compliance with the Restrictive
Covenants and by-laws and community enhancement. The Board typically meets on a
monthly basis and an annual members’ meeting is held the last Wednesday in
February each year.
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