The U.S. Postal Service’s plan to sell the Christiansted Post Office building for $1.2 million is being opposed by Delegate to Congress Donna Christian Christensen.
Two years ago the Postal Service announced it was leaving the historic, 250-year-old Danish West Indies & Guinea Co. warehouse building in order to find a larger downtown location. The National Park Service, the owner of the Christiansted National Historic Site in which the building sits, wants to turn the structure into a museum dedicated to the African slave trade.
But the Postal Service’s decision to place the property on the open market for $1.2 million rather than make a straight title transfer to a sister federal agency has complicated matters.
Christensen met with Postal Service officials on Friday to discuss her opposition to the sale of the building for commercial purposes. She said she asked the Postal Service to consider turning the property over to the Virgin Islands government or the Park Service instead.
Tom Pino, an asset manager with the Postal Service, could not be reached for comment.
"We really oppose the building going into private hands. We want to make sure that building is retained as a historic landmark," Christensen said.
Joel Tutein, Park Service superintendent on St. Croix, said the management plan for the Christiansted National Historic Site, which includes Fort Christiansvaern, the Scale House, Customs House and Steeple Building, calls for the Park Service to tell the story of St. Croix between 1735 and 1917, when the Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark.
So far, military, religious and trade histories have been interpreted, but not that of the 50,000 enslaved Africans imported to St. Croix and sold on the stairs of the Danish West Indies & Guinea Co. warehouse building.
"This post office is the cornerstone and last segment of a quadrangle of buildings, used during the colonial period and the slave trade, located in the historic district area which is currently being restored on St. Croix," Christensen said. "It is very much a part of the legacy of these islands and should be retained for public use. As we look at ways to improve our tourism product we cannot afford to remove the remaining remnants of our heritage."
In a subsequent interview, Tutein said the Park Service stands ready to invest as much as $10 million to renovate the building, including an immediate $350,000 needed to stabilize the elderly structure.
Christensen said the Postal Service would not make a final decision overnight.
"It will take a while and it will take some negotiations," she said.