FREDERIKSTED

also called Westend, town on the west coast of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, 17 mi (27 km) southwest of Christiansted. Historically, the town was a mercantile centre for the sugar-based economy of St. Croix because of its deep-sea port and warehouse facilities. Innovations in cargo handling, the termination of the sugar industry, and the improvement of facilities at Christiansted in the 1960s and 1970s led to the town's economic decline. The deepwater roadstead harbour is the only natural resource capable of reversing the trend; in the late 1970s the government initiated major improvements to the pier and developed tourist facilities, in order to encourage private investment. The town's Victorian architecture dates from its reconstruction after a fire in 1878. Two miles away is one of the island's great showplaces, Whim Greathouse, restored to depict the life of the sugar planters at their peak. Pop. (1980) 1,046.