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# Lutheran Parsonage Kongensgade 23 Charlotte Amalie St. Thomas Island Virgin Islands HABS No. VI-81 J 2\- # PHOTOGRAPHS WRITTEN DESCRIPTIVE AND HISTORICAL DATA # Historic American Buildings Survey National Park Service Department of the Interior Washington, D.C. 20240 wV*^ HISTORIC AMERICAN ®3©fftfim*N©«8£e@F© &"QWAi LUTHERAN PARSONAGE HABS No. VI-81 . 2|°™ Location: Kongensgade 23, Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands PART I'. ARCHITECTURAL INFORMATION A. General Statement: 1. Architectural interest and merit: An 18th-century Danish Colonial' house used continuously as residence for ministers of the Lutheran Church. 2. Condition of fabric: Fair to good. B. Description of Exterior: 1. Overall dimensions: About 60' by 60'. 2. Foundations: Brick and stone rubble in lime mortar. Plastered on exterior, unplastered in basement. 3. Wall construction: Brick and stone rubble with plaster on exterior, painted white, and with wood frame. 4. Chimneys: Two, one of which is from the exterior bake oven and another one from kitchen fireplace. 5. Porches: Across the front (south side), there is an open porch on first floor with eight pillars supporting an enclosed porch above. There is wooden lattice railing in the seven bays. Porch paved with buff brick laid flat. 6. Openings: All openings in masonry walls are set in timber framing. a. Doorways and doors: Doors with exterior wooden shutters have vertical planks outside and three-panel frame inside. Interior shutters have three panels while adjustable louvers or screens are set in the upper two panels with the lowest panel being blind. b. Windows and shutters: A typical window has exterior shutters, wooden, vertical plants outside, and two-panel frame inside. Interior jalousie shutters have two-panel adjustable louvers. Interior shutters replaced in most of the bedrooms with modern fixed jalousie windows with adjustable metal louvers. Some windows have screens in frames between shutters. Second floor east side bedroom has typical exterior shutters in two windows on east wall and double-hung window sash with six glass lights on each leaf. No interior shutters. Lutheran Parsonage HABS No. VI-81 (Page 2) 7. Roof: a. Shape, covering: Each of the three sides of "U" has a separate hipped roof, wooden frame with corrugated metal covering. b. Cornice, eaves: No cornice. Gutters at all eave lines draining to cistern. C. Description of Interior: 1. Floor plans: Two masonry blocks parallel to each other running east-west separated by a patio and linked by a wooden frame connection on the west side, thus forming the "U". The larger masonry block next to street is the main part of house. There is a basement underneath. Access through a wooden door on east from public steps along the east side of house. First floor: Office east, parlor center, bedroom west, with bath on north side, porch along south side, open-air walkway along north side, roofed by enclosed porch-hall. Second floor: Within masonry walls en second floor of main block: bedrooms on east and west ends separated by parlor in middle. Enclosed porch along south side with sleeping porches each end. West end leads to v/ooden frame connection with other masonry mass, consisting of bath, dining room and open-air porch facing patio. Bath and dining room supported on first floor by modern concrete piers, kitchen beneath on first floor. Porch supported by brick piers, arches, and vaults. It connects to rear masonry block up the hill to the north. On same level as second floor is a kitchen and laundry room. Cistern lies beneath. 2. Stairways: Outside masonry stair from patio to second floor porch. Remnants of masonry stair from first floor area to second floor hall-porch, which are now hidden by remodelling done on first floor kitchen. 3. Floor: Wooden board floors on timber framing throughout except concrete in kitchens. 4. Wall and ceiling finish: Cement plaster over masonry walls and wall board over wooden frame; wooden board ceilings or roof framing left exposed. 5. Doorways and doors: Wooden-framed openings, some without doors, some with wooden three-panel jalousie doors, with solid bottom panel, and with upper two panels, having adjustable louvers. Lutheran Parsonage HABS No. VI-81 (Page 3) 6. Trim: Wooden baseboards, cornice boards and trim around openings in parts of house. 7. Hardware: Wrought-iron hooks, strap hinges and pintles (two per shutter) and bolt brackets. Most shutter holdbacks missing. Some replaced with modern hardware inside and out. 8. Lighting: Electric throughout. 9. Heating: No heating facilities. Large "walk-in" Danish fireplace takes up west end of kitchen. Corbelled brick chimney with two wrought-iron rods and across the front is a heavy timber lintel. Original brick value canopy over top. Recent sheet metal cap over this with charcoal burners with cement tile tops. Outside base oven on the west wall of the kitchen has a chimney and arched brick oven. D. Site: 1. General setting: Free-standing house on Government Hill overlooking Charlotte Amalie harbor to the south. Public steps to east separate it from Government House. Private residences are to west. 2. Enclosures: Cement plastered masonry wall on east side of patio next to public steps with masonry arch over two-leaf wooden entrance gate, with vertical planking inside and three-panel planking outside. Low retaining walls occur as lot rises to the north, constructed of brick and stone in cement mortar, of which some is plastered and painted. There are steps up west side from first floor area to north end of lot, and high retaining walls next to street. 3. Outbuildings: A small one-room structure of unknown use stands in the northwest corner of the lot. It is built of brick with lime plaster and painted white. It has four narrow wooden frame doorways and two windows with fixed louvers. Wooden frame and plank hipped roof with corrugated metal covering. Masonry cistern immediately to the west of steps on west side of house, leading from street up to first floor terrace off west bedroom. The cistern's south wall faces street. The top is a few inches above grade ot west yard. 4. Walks: Terrace next to first floor bedroom on west side. Steps from street lead up to it. walks and service entrance along north side of kitchen and laundry room. Other steps and walkways are mentioned. Lutheran Parsonage HABS No. VI-81 (Page 4) 5. Landscaping: Tropical plants and palm tree in patio. Shrubs on street side. Several varieties of trees in yards to west and north. Prepared by: Edited by: Fred Gjessing National Park Service September 1958 Jack Barker, Jr. HABS National Park Service September 1984