Old Christiansted Hospital, St. Croix
🇻🇮St. Croix

Old Christiansted Hospital, St. Croix – Haunted Caribbean

Some places just look haunted. They exude a sense of dread and foreboding that frighten, excite, and entice you all at once. Old Christiansted Hospital is just such a place for me.

The first thing to know about Old Christiansted Hospital is its real name. Err, I mean it’s real names.

Two Names

The structure was officially known as St. Croix Municipal Hospital, though many old Crucians still know it as Peter’s Farm Hospital. I say old Crucians as Old Christiansted Hospital is, indeed, very old.

The facility dates back to 1900. This explains its strikingly iconic Danish architecture. (The United States didn’t acquire STX and the rest of the U.S. Virgin Islands until 1917.)

Breathtaking Location

Its location, up in the lush and mostly undeveloped hills above Christiansted, would’ve afforded anyone enduring treatment here one of the best views of St. Croix’s principal town and harbor.

A prime feature of said view: the Christiansted Cemetery.

Haunted Hospital?

Indeed, the final resting place for many who never walked out of the Old Christiansted Hospital sits just below and across the road from the decaying infirmary.

No doubt, this has given rise to the notion that the old hospital is haunted. The structure’s gloomy appearance contributes to this as well.

A bigger factor, though, are the old legends and ghost stories still remembered by Crucians with family ties to the hospital. 

Haunted Legends of Old Christiansted Hospital 

The story I’ve heard most paints the Old Christiansted Hospital as a former mental ward haunted by the troubled souls of long-deceased patients. 

Other stories center more on the cemetery. Kids living in the area are warned not to enter the area ahead of their elders, lest they encounter the spirit of a former patient.

Still another legend suggests that the hospital isn’t haunted at all. The hill behind it, though, is another story. Some say that an area further up is home to a sort of Crucian Chupacabra!

Post-Hospital Period

The Old Christiansted Hospital closed in 1955 with the opening of a new, larger hospital (Charles Harwood Memorial Hospital). Soon thereafter, the facility was converted into an apartment building. In later years, a local Senator, Sidney Lee, purchased the Old Christiansted Hospital. He made his home and office there for many years.

Were hauntings and supernatural occurrences as regular as the rent for those living here in the post-hospital period? I don’t know.

If I ever work up the courage to trek up to the property and poke around for clues, though, I’ll be sure to let you know…

For more on what it was like to work at the St. Croix Municipal Hospital back in the day, check out this wonderful article from the archives of The Virgin Islands Daily News.

 

Send this to a friend