USVI Historic Buildings Archive

The Frederick Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Thomas was established in 1666. The same year that Erik Nelson Smith took formal possession of the island of St. Thomas in the name of the Danish West Indies Company.When St. Thomas became a crown colony through the purchase of the company by the State in 1754, the church was able to expand its role in community affairs. It was already operating schools for the Lutherans and their children, and it was later that slave children could attend their school.