Slob Historic District
The Slob Historic District began as a large sugar plantation in the mid-18th century. Owned by the Bodkin family until 1784, the estate boasted a factory building, a water mill tower, a "great house" constructed c.1750 and a slave village. Following the slave emancipation in 1848, the fortunes of the estate declined, and much of the rich land became grazing land for sheep and cattle. In 1878, workers agitated by the low wages permitted under a new labor law rioted and burned the plantation. Today, visitors can see the Great House which has survived, though with some alterations. The district also includes five late 18th-century and two early 19th-century slave cottages in the slave village--the birthplace of Cyril King, the island's first native-born governor. Also surviving are the stables and an 1840s factory building.
The Slob Historic District is located north of Centerline Rd., approximately six miles west of Frederiksted, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. The Slob Great House has also been documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey.
Information and photos courtesy of the National Register for Historic Places U.S. Virgin Islands Travel Itinerary, a subsidiary of the National Park Service.
