The Crucian Heritage and Nature Tourism Organization (CHANT), a nonprofit group that was established in 2007, has begun revitalization efforts of seven historic homes on Hospital Street on St Croix.
According to the mission statement found on their website, “CHANT is committed to preserving Crucian culture and heritage and promoting sustainable community development with a focus on tourism, traditional skills, and heritage-focused workforce development. CHANT also supports the protection, conservation, mitigation, and restoration of our island’s natural resources, helping to build environmental and, in turn, community resilience while reconnecting our community with nature.”
CHANT offers a multifaceted approach to historic preservation and community enrichment, including hosting summer programs where students explore multiple artistic mediums and use these mediums to investigate Crucian history, community organizing, and social activism. Additionally, CHANT also hosts workshops that support students in learning traditional woodworking skills as well as support job placement upon program completion.
“We are dedicated to promoting cultural heritage and nature tourism as a sustainable development option for St Croix. CHANT focuses on developing authentic narratives about the Virgin Islands and including Virgin Islanders in the tourism sector, ensuring that they are at the center of our tourism product whether it be through excursions, services, or other entrepreneurial ventures,” Executive Director of CHANT Frandelle Gerard said.
In an effort to prepare the island of St. Croix to receive cruise ships again, CHANT worked extensively to curate an intensive Virgin Islands history training program that initially trained over 30 people who could be tour guides and taxi operators. In partnership with the Department of Tourism, CHANT has gone on to train over 200 individuals in their training program.
“We really wanted to ensure that our tourism providers had the facts and the history from an Afro-Caribbean perspective in order to inform visitors about the richness of our heritage and culture in conjunction with the role of Afro-Caribbean people in our regional and world history,” Gerard said.
“As an important part of maintaining our heritage and reconnecting young people with traditional skill sets, we began offering training programs that focused on carpentry, woodworking, and masonry. Once we had a contingent of students who had moved through the program we were able to identify an area of historic homes in Free Gut, that were under free black ownership predating 1777, that we could revitalize and create a new community space. This section of town was set aside for occupation by free blacks under the early Danish colonial development of the town of Frederiksted. Our objective is to train young people with the skills necessary to later support in our construction efforts. We have already drawn up our architectural plans for the area and have worked to build meaningful relationships with the homeowners. One of the reasons this project is so important to us is that it is an intervention crafted to create habitable spaces in the historic town and offer an avenue to preserving the built heritage of our town. Additionally, maintaining family ownership and creating intergenerational wealth for the family is important to us. This is a partnership with the family.” Gerard said.
After diligent efforts, CHANT has been able to secure funding from organizations like the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, the State Historic Preservation Office, and the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York to complete the restoration efforts of the first property and have begun the preliminary stages of this effort.
“One of the buildings will be used as an exhibit space where we will be curating archeological finds that were found on the site as well as honoring the history of the family connected to the land. We will be hosting tours through the property while other rooms will be used as hostel-styled dorms for traveling artists and students who may need a space to stay while on island. Our hope is to restore the courtyard space to be used as a community meeting area where we could come together and enjoy collaborative events”, Gerard said.
