Estate Northstar
North Star is estate 19 in St. Croix’s Northside B Quarter. Based on appearances on historic maps, the windmill was likely built in the late 18th century. The windmill was incorporated into a dwelling. The windmill is in good condition.
North Star indicates how locations near the north shore in Northside B quarter provided earlier access for sugar cultivation compared to more elevated locations. No settlement is indicated through 1750. An animal mill first appears on the second Beck printing, which appears on all the annotated maps using this base map. None of the other annotated or manuscript copies of Beck indicate any sugar machinery.
In the 1760s, the annotated Beck maps and manuscript copies of the Beck map indicate an animal mill hand drawn into the map except the 1766 unsigned manuscript copy of Beck and the 1770 annotated Beck map, a map that did not add any sugar machinery to the printed map.
Both the 1799 Oxholm and 1856 Parsons maps indicate a windmill at North Star. The 20th century topographic maps indicate windmill ruins at approximately 90 feet elevation, with the top specified at 113 feet, at North Star.
McGuire geographic dictionary of the Virgin Islands (p.138) notes the old mill-tower and ruins of Estate, estimated longitude 64°49’15”, which is slightly west of the longitude found during the present research of 64°49’02”. Northstar later merged with Prosperity and Canebay.
The 1760s annotated and manuscript copies of the Beck map attribute ownership to Thomas Kirvan while the 1770 and c.1770 annotated maps attribute ownership to Edmund Bladeville. The 1766 unsigned manuscript copy of Beck attribute ownership to Cornelius Hendericksen.
More information presented about North Star can be found at this website.
Photos of Northstar, 2020s
Historic Maps of Northstar
