Community Alliance to Preserve Historic Properties

I am a bit of a talk show radio junky. I love listening to the local talk shows. It gives me a sense of community and helps me to keep up with the dialogue and pulse of the VI. On one of today's shows I heard some representatives from the "Community Alliance to Preserve Historic Properties" talking about their efforts, their website and a bill that is coming up for review later this summer.
On first scan of their website it seems that the group is based out of St. Thomas and is spearheaded by realtors.  I am curious if they have begun to engage with the local organizations like the "Hillsiders", the "Watagonians" and "Upstreeters". What do the people who have lived in these towns think about their efforts and the bill? At first glance the bill has some punitive components that I wonder how effective they would be.  Is fining people for derelict properties the best option? Should there be first education and workshops offered to the owners. Help them to link with civic organization and funding to fix their properties? I'm glad that the conversation is happening and hope to be a part of it. Here is a link to their site www.preservevi.org and a video about their efforts.

Interview: George Tyson

On May 18, 2012 we had our first interview with the historian George Tyson. He has been helping me research the previous owners of our building.  I find it interesting that many of them were women. However, it's really challenging wrapping my head around 18th century Danish West Indian life: the owning of another person; how to purchase yourself out of slavery?; and how to then survive on your own? Especially as a woman. What are your assets? Who do you align yourself with? And most importantly: What did this house mean to a formerly enslaved woman? Was it another means of income? Was it a refuge? An asset? We have owning property so associated with the concept of the "American Dream", a home as wealth builder, a form of security. What did it mean to them?

La Vaughn Belle & George Tyson reviewing the history of previous owners at 18B East St.

Scrape, Paint and Rejuvenate

More good news! We have been accepted into the St. Croix Foundation's "Scrape, Paint and Rejuvenate" program. This program is to assist owners in the historic towns of Christiansted and Frederiksted in fixing their building. I have a meeting at the site next week with the program manager, but I am feeling so Midas right now! I can't wait to see exactly what they will be able to help me do to the property.

Funding Trailer #1

This is a funding trailer I developed as a part of the application process for a grant from the Virgin Islands Humanities Council. Wish me luck!

I started with using Vimeo, which has a higher quality, until I realized that you could not watch the video using a cell phone.

The House That Freedom Built from La Vaughn Belle on Vimeo.

So I decided to also post on YouTube. So if watching from your smartphone you should be able to see this one.


Since this is also a production blog I will comment a bit on that. Most of the footage was shot by Jason Roberts, except the shot where I am sitting and describing the motivation for the film. Due to deadlines and scheduling conflicts I shot that myself in my living room.

I so need funding to get better equipment! But a wise friend told me this:"The best camera to get is the one you have". So I push on filming what needs to be filmed, but writing away like a mad woman to get funding to take the production up a notch.

Why we don't remember

The house is located in an area of Christiansted that is forgotten, abandoned both physically and psychologically. It is a part of an amnesia in our social memory. Why? Most people when they ask where the house is and I begin to tell them, don't have any visual references in mind. Their images and memory stop at about Company Street. Through my research I've learned that the town was designed to have a social, commercial and even racial divide. All the main buildings that had the most importance to colonial commerce were located near the waterfront. The laborers were placed in areas in the back streets. The first freed blacks were placed there by law in the 1700's as a form of urban segregation and control. How is it that we don't remember them? Them, the people who worked extra hard on Sundays, their only day off, week after week, to purchase freedom for themselves or for a loved one? How is it that we don't remember them?