Estate Upper Bethlehem
Upper Bethlehem is estate 18 in St. Croix’s King’s Quarter. Based on appearances on historic maps, the windmill was likely built in the 1760s. The windmill has been reduced to a foundation.
The 1750 map depicts sugar cultivation in estate 17 extending into estate 18. The animal mill and other structures appear in estate 17. Neither of the printed Beck maps depict sugar machinery icons. All but two of the annotated Beck maps and manuscript copies depict a windmill in what today is Upper Bethlehem. The 1766 annotated map has a handwritten windmill on the east side of estate 18. All the other maps with a windmill place it in estate 17. The two maps without a windmill added for this estate are the unsigned manuscript copy and the 1770 annotated map that only added landowner names.
The 1799 Oxholm map places a windmill on a ridge running through estate 18 at King. The 1856 Parsons map includes a windmill at elevation of 232 feet. Parsons places a square immediately next to the windmill to the south and a couple of structures to the west.None of the 20th century topographic maps indicate any ruins at Kingshill. Field reconnaissance identified a windmill foundation in the area.
The 1750 map attributes ownership to the king. Ownership transitioned to Peter Heyliger Senior, who appears as the owner on all the annotated Beck maps and manuscript copies from 1766 to 1791.
McGuire geographic dictionary of the Virgin Islands (p.192) notes sugar plantation operations in the 1920s. Estate Upper Bethlehem was previously King Estate. Like other estates in the immediate area, what is now Upper Bethlehem combines portions of several different estates.
Historic Maps of Upper Bethlehem
