Orange Grove is estate 31 in St. Croix’s West End Quarter. This mill sits on a hill above other ruins in the valley below. This windmill has distinctive brick striping that was plastered over when the mill operated. The windmill remains in good condition.
The estate now known as Orange Grove appears to have been settled during the French period by DuFresne. The 1750 map shows estate 31 to have a stream and trees. Both printed Beck maps of the 1750s depict no sugar machinery in estate 31.
None of the annotated Beck maps along with both manuscript copies from the 1760s include an animal mill in estate 31. However, all of these maps attribute ownership to James Mead extending east into estate 8 of Prince’s Quarter, with sugar manufacturing equipment depicted there. The 1790s manuscript maps attribute ownership to both Tuite and Armstrong for the neighboring estates.
The 1799 Oxholm map includes a windmill in the northwest corner of estate 31, joining it with estate 8 of Prince’s Quarter as Orange Grove. The 1856 Parsons map indicates a windmill in a similar location at Orange Grove, with structures to the east and a slave village to the south.
The 1920s topographic map locates the Orange Grove Mill at 422 feet elevation, up a steep hill and to the west of other structures in the valley below. The 1958 and 1982 topographic maps indicate ruins of a windmill at Orangegrove in a similar location at 420 feet elevation, confirmed through field reconnaissance.
As the McGuire geographic dictionary of the Virgin Islands (p. 139-140) describes, guavas grew wild here in the 1920s with a considerable village in the valley.