The staircase at the Estate Enighed Great House has two curved flights that reach out toward the street, a shape known as "welcoming arms." When the building was restored between 1980 and 1982, the contractors wrote to Denmark looking for yellow bricks to match the originals on that staircase. They ended up finding a supplier stateside. That level of care has always been part of the place. It also explains why the long closure of the Elaine Ione Sprauve Library has been so frustrating to watch from Cruz Bay. The building looks finished because it has been finished for some time.
The Department of Planning and Natural Resources scheduled the library's reopening for Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, with a family Halloween celebration. The library opened once before, in September 2023, and the question this time is whether it stays open.
A Ruin Twice Over Before It Was a Library
Records for Estate Enighed go back to 1757, the year William Wood, thought to be its first owner, died. He is buried on the south side of the library with 11 members of his family, and the estate appears on Oxholm's 1780 map of St. John. In Danish, "Enighed" means unity or harmony. People on the island pronounce it "en-nee-high" or "een-hide," depending on who you ask.
The original great house may have been lost to a hurricane. The brothers Ernst and Peter Weinmar rebuilt it in the mid-1840s. Among the builders was John Bernadine Sprauve, a master mason who came over from St. Thomas to work on the house from 1838 to 1845. He was Elaine Sprauve's great-grandfather, so the woman the library is named for has family ties to its stonework.
In the 1840s the estate had 60 acres of provisions and 40 acres of sugar, worked by 42 enslaved people who lived in seven houses on the southern slope of Enighed Pond. Denmark outlawed slavery in 1848, the plantation stopped making money, and the brothers declared bankruptcy in 1852. In 1899 Judge Jens Jorgensen acquired a property that had been nearly abandoned for 15 years. A spark from charcoal production set the great house on fire, and according to the 1982 dedication booklet, it "was never repaired or lived in again." Most of the estate was split up for homesteading in the 1940s, and the territory took over the ruin.
The ruin was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Former senator Cleone Creque led the effort to rehabilitate it in the late 1970s, and a Community Development Block Grant paid for the work. Under Ted Fults of Design Collaborative, the burned-out shell became the stone-walled, woodworked building that stands today. It was dedicated in 1982 to "Miss Elaine," who taught for 15 years, worked 30 years as assistant to the island administrator, volunteered with many civic groups, and died in 1997 at 84.
The St. Thomas Source collected this history, drawing on St. John Historical Society material, when the ribbon was cut in June 2023. The closures of the past decade had more varied causes than the fire did.
Seven Years of Closures, Sorted by Cause
People usually describe the library as having been "open only intermittently since 2016," which is how the St. John Source put it in its Oct. 19 report. That phrase covers several separate problems. Listing each closure with its cause shows a pattern.
- August 2016, staffing. The island's librarian resigned, and librarians began commuting from St. Thomas to keep the library running.
- September 2017, storm damage. After Hurricane Irma the library closed for six months. Mold, failed air conditioning, phone problems and accessibility issues followed.
- February 2019, open but damaged. The St. Thomas Source reported the library was operating again while the building still needed repairs.
- August 2019, renovation. The long rehabilitation closure began.
- April 2023, punch list. A ribbon cutting planned for Friday, April 14, was postponed because the contractor had not finished its punch-list items. Staff training was also incomplete.
- June 2023, onboarding. The ribbon was cut after almost four years of work on the roof, shutters, bathrooms and air conditioning. The doors stayed closed while staff were brought on.
- September 13, 2023, open. DPNR opened the library to the public.
- December 29, 2023, electrical. DPNR closed the "Elaine Ione Sprauve Public Library and Museum of Cultural Arts" until further notice for electrical repairs.
- June 7, 2024, still closed. DPNR announced the facility would stay closed until further notice.
The building itself caused the 2017 storm closure and the 2019 to 2023 renovation. FEMA put $355,748.53 toward starting that reconstruction, and the territorial government covered the rest. Once the renovation was done, the delays and closures came from training, staffing, a contractor's unfinished items and wiring. The public library lasted a little over three months between its September 2023 opening and its December 2023 closure.
That is the background for Oct. 31. The roof, shutters and bathrooms were already done. What the library has needed is enough staff, working systems, and time without a new problem.
What Oct. 31 Was Planned to Look Like
DPNR's Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums planned the reopening for children. Staff would wear costumes, the building would be decorated, and young visitors would get snacks, refreshments and Halloween candy. The announced schedule ran from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.:
- 10:30 to 11 a.m., storytime
- 11 a.m. to noon, balloon animals
- Noon to 1 p.m., face painting
- 1 to 2 p.m., scavenger hunt
In DPNR's announcement, Commissioner Jean-Pierre L. Oriol described the library as more than a place to borrow books:
"Libraries are important gathering places where our young people can discover books, explore their creativity and develop a lifelong love of learning."
The release ends by promising continued "access to library services, educational resources and community programming." That ongoing service is the part that ended in December 2023, which makes it the part to watch now.
The Schedule That Matters Comes After the Party
The Oct. 19 announcement gave no weekly hours, no list of services and no calendar of programs for November or December. The most recent regular schedule is from DPNR's September 2023 opening notice. That notice gave hours of Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the library closed Mondays. Active cardholders could use services, new card applications were available at the front desk, and children's storytime was planned for Saturdays at 11 a.m. The library closed again after that notice, so the 2023 schedule is a useful reference but not a confirmed plan for this season.
The same is true of the services described in 2023. The April 2023 plan included literacy, financial literacy and digital skills programs, and desktop computers and laptops had been ordered. Those plans show what DPNR intended for the building three years ago. The 2026 offerings will become clear from what is posted on the door and announced in the weeks after Halloween.
Here is a practical approach for a household in Cruz Bay. Check DPNR's press releases for posted weekly hours before you plan a Saturday visit around the 2023 schedule. In 2023, new card applications were handled at the front desk. Watch for an announcement of a regular storytime, because a repeating weekly program would show the library is up and running again. The building has been ready since 2023, so steady weekly hours are what to look for.
The Enighed Great House is one of the best-known historic buildings in Cruz Bay, and at Tropical Properties VI we have watched its long reopening along with everyone else on island. If you'd like to talk about the history around Enighed Pond or what's changing in Cruz Bay this season, we're always glad to.
