The Whim is estate 4 in St. Croix’s West End Quarter. The estate name Whim was not in use until the 19th century, previously being called John’s Rest. The windmill was most likely built in the 1770s and is now incorporated in to the exhibits of the St. Croix Landmarks Society, the only reconstructed windmill on St. Croix.
The estate currently known as The Whim appears to have been settled in the French period, with the name le Vert, or The Green. In 1750, the estate was planted in cotton, with a house plus a slave village in the northwest quadrant.
The first Beck printing does not indicate any sugar machinery, while the second printing depicts an animal mill, a feature repeated on all the annotated maps and manuscript copies.
Three of the annotated Beck maps of the 1760s attribute ownership to Patrik McDonnoug. One of the annotated maps and both manuscript copies from 1766 attribute ownership to John Delany’s widow.
Oxholm’s 1778 map of Frederiksted includes the area of The Whim. A windmill appears in the northeast quadrant of the estate, south of a slave village and east of other structures. Ownership in 1778 attributed to Delany remains consistent on the 1790s Beck manuscript copies.
Naming variations exist between the 1799 Oxholm map and 1856 Parsons map, identified as Johns Rest and Wym, respectively. Both maps depict a windmill in the northeast quadrant of the estate to the south of a drive coming from Centerline Road.
The 1920s topographic map locates the Whim Mill to the east of other structures, including the chimney. A Mill with Fan on the eastern border of the estate is consistent with a water tower found through field reconnaissance. On this map, a structure with rounded ends located to the south of the drive is consistent with the great house. A village lies to the southwest of this structure.
The 1958 and 1982 topographic maps both identify a windmill among ruins at Whim. These ruins correspond to the current display at the St. Croix Landmarks Society on the estate.
As the McGuire geographic dictionary of the Virgin Islands (p. 198) describes, sugar cane was still cultivated here in the 1920s. The previous name of John’s Rest is also mentioned.