Dear Editor,
I found the article “Open Forum: Estate La Grange is the Place to Tell Our Emancipation History” by accident. Upon reading it, Professor Olasee Davis is spot on!
About a year ago, I accidentally found the old La Grange sugar factory when researching the Estate La Grange. After seeing images of the factory, I was haunted by the thought that something should be done to save this building. What could it be repurposed as? Professor Davis’s proposal is the most logical, which would honor the enslaved and bring essential tourist dollars to this area of St. Croix. The project is perfect for several nonprofit and government grants, such as the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund or the National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Fund. These two resources are just two of many that could initiate the project’s beginnings with seed money in the hundreds of thousands of dollars or perhaps millions.
What really is needed is for the USVI government, owners of this land, to turn the entire city and other historic associated structures into a state or national park developed using and honoring Olasee Davis’s dream.
— Gary Fuenfhausen, Natchez, Mississippi
