Coakley Bay is estate 1 in St. Croix’s East End B Quarter. Coakley Bay can trace its name to early in the Danish period, with William Coakly owning the property by 1750. Sugar was produced here by the 1750s and the windmill constructed by 1794. This windmill tower is in very good condition and has been modified as an outdoor space.
Estate Coakley Bay was settled early in the Danish period and shifted from cotton to sugar by the 1750s. Like the entire eastern one third of St. Croix, no indication of habitation in the French period but is settled and growing cotton by 1750. While the handwriting on the Cronenberg & Jægersberg 1750 map is ambiguous, the estate is shown as owned by William Coakely, indicating the name of the estate goes back to the earliest settlers in the Danish period. The first animal mill was indicated in the second Beck printing in the mid-1750s. By the late 1760s, the animal mill still appears with ownership attributed to John Coakly, with 3 different spellings of the name in 6 maps. The maps of the early 1790s both show ownership by Cardon, which Oxholm spells Cardens in 1794, a place name still currently used in the area.
The windmill first appears on the Oxholm 1794 map with a consistent appearance in the Parsons and 1921 USGS topographic maps at Coakley Bay along with the 1958 and photorevision 1982 USGS topographic maps by the place name Cardens. The structures indicated on the Parsons 1856 map to the south and west of the windmill can mostly be located. However, the orientation of the plantation house on the 1794 Oxholm map is more consistent with the 2020s configuration of the home built on the foundations of the plantation house and the windmill tower on the knoll. The height of the windmill tower is approximately 30 feet, given the elevation measures on the USGS map of approximately 40 feet at the base and 72 feet at the top. As the McGuire description below shows, the name of the area shifted over time.