A Foreboding Interview: Dr. Elizabeth Rezende on Hill Street

A few weeks ago I did an interview with Dr. Elizabeth Rezende. She is an expert on Free Gut and wrote her dissertation on the history of the area. She suggested that we do the interview in front of a house on Hill Street near "London Bridge". It is a row house and fairly well maintained. That day we had issues with our equipment. One of the cameras kept stopping, but we were able to get it working again and did a fantastic interview. Dr. Rezende, or Betsy as she is most favorably known, is a wealth of knowledge and had so many stories to tell. One of the stories that stood out was about a woman who was for all intents and purposes, a pimp. She would groom young girls to be a "housekeeper' for Danes and would take the children of those relationships and groom them as well in an ever efficient cycle. But later that day I got a call from Rashad, our cameraman, to say the footage was lost. The memory card wasn't reading! Darn! We still had footage from another camera and good audio, but may likely have to do the interview again. However, it will have to be in another location.  Why? Because the building we did the interview in front of burnt down last week. Why? Because a vagrant had gotten in to the abandoned house next door and in using candles burnt the building. So the lovely woman, Ms. Sutton, whom we had to ask permission to film on her front stoop has lost her home of over forty years.  I once saw a picture of the inside of her house. The photographer Ted Davis had taken this amazing photograph of the interior of her home while she was conducting piano lessons. There was so much detail in that picture, you felt as if you were transported into another world. And now it's gone.

I have recently been advocating for new bill, the Antiquities and Historic Preservation Bill 29-0358. Some of the concerns of the bill are that it has a mechanism that could possibly lead to local people losing their properties if they do not fix or maintain them.  What I don't think people get is that if you just leave your building to the elements and the vagrants, you will lose your property anyway! It will rot, crumble, be burnt, scavenged, and deteriorate to such a condition that even if you wanted to sell you would not get much money for it, so then what was the point in trying to hold onto it?  When children are neglected by their parents because they are unable to care for them properly, no matter the reason, the children are put in foster care. Maybe that's what needs to happen to these buildings. But I hope that Ms. Sutton and what happened to her will convince our legislators that the status quo is not an option.

For those who are moved by Ms. Marjorie Sutton's story here are the details to help. St. Croix attorney Joel Holt has set up an escrow account so donations can be made. You can donate via PayPal by clicking on this link:

http://ddstudio.us/marjoriesuttonfund.html

OR, Checks can be made to: Joel H. Holt Esquire P.C. Trust Account, and put ‘Marjorie’ on the memo line.  Checks can be mailed to c/o D&D Studio, 55 Company St. C'sted, VI 00820. All funds will go to Marjorie Sutton.

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.

Why Vagrants are Good, Why Vagrants are Bad

Why vagrants are good:

They go through your garbage and collect all REUSABLE items, like aluminum and bike tires.

Why vagrants are bad:

They go through your stuff and collect all USEABLE items, like your tools that you were using to get the last bit of vinyl off your original pine floor!!!!

Lesson learned:

NEVER, EVER leave tools at a job site, even if you think they are well hidden and small.

At least it was an inexpensive lesson I learned as the tool they stole was about $35 to replace.

It feels a little creepy to know that when I'm not at the house there are people, primarily men who are drug addicts, that are combing through everything there. But there was one good thing that surfaced through them sifting through our trash: CHANEY!

Chaney, a word morphed from "china" and "money", are the fragments and shards of plates from Danish colonial times that children ground and used as play money in games. It's a serious collectors item and local jewelers use them to make fantastic pieces. As an artist I have referenced them in previous work entitled "Collectible".

I think the chaney might have been in some of the trash that was taken out of the house. Pedro, a wonderful man who has been helping out as a contractor, found it with his keen eye. What drew his attention to the bag was how it was knotted, "Ah hah, somebody's been collecting something," he said. He was right. I wonder if these pieces were collected from our site, or another. Regardless, most historic properties in the Virgin Islands have them all over the yard.