Fair Plain (Bethlehem Middle Works) was built in estates 33b-34 in St. Croix’s King’s Quarter. Based on appearances on historic maps, the windmill was likely built in the 1770s and decommissioned before 1794. This location is the only example on the 1799 Oxholm map of a windmill tower without sails. The windmill has been reduced to a foundation.
Each of the areas for sugar manufacturing in the sprawling Bethlehem plantation, which included all or part of 10 estates, receives separate examination here. Bethlehem New Works became a substantial settlement in the southern portion of estate 25 in King’s Quarter.
None of the early maps included any sugar manufacturing icons, including the 1750 map and all the Beck variants. The 1779 plan of the Bethlehem plantation includes a windmill at Bay Works.
The 1799 Oxholm map included a tower without sails at fair plane, the only such tower on his map. The 1856 Parsons map noted the Fair Plane ruin without depicting a tower. The 1921 topographic sheet identified an old mill tower while the later 20th century topographic maps did not identify any ruins.
The 1750 map attributed ownership to Joseph Woodchett. While the 1766 annotated Beck map and Zöllner manuscript copy were silent on ownership, the 1767, c.1767, and c.1770 annotated Beck maps along with the unsigned manuscript copy all attribute owner to John de Windt as part of the Bethlehem estate. The 1770 annotated Beck map attributed ownership to Governor Johannes Heiliger. The 1790 and 1791 maps attributed ownership to John Jacob de Windt.
McGuire geographic dictionary of the Virgin Islands (pp.34 & 73) notes that the Bethlehem plantation included and estates 15, 16, 25,26, and 34 along with the western half of the neighboring estates 14, 17, 24, 27, and 33. As part of this plantation, the area known as Fair Plane or Fairplain included the ruins of a residence and old mill tower.