USVI Historic Buildings Archive

The Estate Nisky, a working plantation, was purchased by the Moravians in 1755 to supplement its mission at New Herrnhut in the eastern section of St. Thomas. The estate continued in use as a plantation through the early part of the 19th century. Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg, who joined the colony in 1733 and was appointed by the leader of the Moravian movement Count Zinzendorf, delivered the first sermon at Estate Nisky standing under a cottonwood tree.