La Grange was an unnumbered estate initially owned by the West India and Guinea Company in St. Croix’s West End Quarter. Based on historic maps, this windmill was likely built in the 1760s. This windmill was blocked to store water. The western half of the windmill tower collapsed.
La Grange is one of two estates on St. Croix owned by the Danish West India and Guinea Company. Both of these states comprise an area several times larger than the more typical 2,000 by 3,000 foot estate.
The estate now known as La Grange appears to have been settled in the French period by Poupel. By 1750 sugar cultivation in the north center of the estate included an animal mill and other structures on the south side of the stream.
Both of the Beck printed maps of the 1750s include an animal mill in the eastern third of the estate, south of the stream. All the annotated Beck maps and the manuscript copies of the 1760s depict the printed animal mill plus a hand-drawn windmill closer to the center of the estate. A map only of La Grange from 1759 includes an animal mill and other structures, but not a windmill.
The 1778 Oxholm map of Frederiksted includes a windmill in the center of the estate along with two animal mills south of it plus other structures to the west. The settlement south of the stream no longer depicts any sugar manufacturing equipment.
Two of the annotated Beck maps attribute ownership to Baron von Schimelman. The 1778 Oxholm map attribute ownership to Grev Schimmelman’s heirs. A decade later, the manuscript copies of Beck attribute ownership to Greve Schimmelman, calling into question if this was a son of the previous owner.
The 1799 Oxholm map includes a windmill in the northwest quadrant of la Grange, with a drive leading to it from the west. The 1856 Parsons map depicts a windmill along with a structure to the southwest at Grange, with a drive leading to it from the south.
The 1920s topographic map locates structures at La Grange in a similar configuration to the 1778 Oxholm map. Legibility limits the identification of a windmill. The 1958 and 1982 topographic maps indicate ruins of a windmill and other structures at La Grange, consistent in location and configuration with Field reconnaissance.
As the McGuire geographic dictionary of the Virgin Islands (p. 109-110) describes, sugar cane was still cultivated here in the 1920s. The village, great house, and mill are noted ½ mile northeast of Frederiksted.