Estate Cottage
Cottage is estate 32 in St. Croix’s Queen’s Quarter. Based on appearances on historic maps, the windmill was likely built in the late 18th century and represented on only a single historic map. Field reconnaissance failed to locate ruins identifiable as a windmill.
While the 1750 map indicates sugar cultivation, the first animal mill appears on the first Beck printed map published in 1754. The depiction on the animal mill remains consistent on the annotated and manuscript copies of the Beck map through the 1770s.
The 1799 Oxholm map shows a windmill at Cottage. The 1856 Parsons map depicts no structures in the area of Cottage. None of the 20th-century topographic maps shows structures identifiable as a windmill at Cottage.
The 1750 map attributes ownership to Doctor Hall. The maps in the 1760s and 1770s attribute ownership to John Meyer. By 1790, ownership of estate 32 transitioned to Coakley.
McGuire geographic dictionary of the Virgin Islands (p.60) provides location and early ownership information. Notes that in the 1920s Cottage has three cotton patches and a cane patch; remainder, bush and grass.
Historic Maps of Cottage
