Charlotte Amalie
[key], town, capital of the Virgin Islands of the United States, on
St. Thomas Island. It is the commercial center of the islands, a free port,
and a popular tourist resort. Founded in the late 17th cent., Charlotte
Amalie was a center of Danish colonial life. It became important as a
trading center during the American Civil War. It was renamed St. Thomas in
1921, but the former Danish name was restored in 1937. The town still
retains a Danish flavor in its architecture and street names; it has one of
the oldest synagogues in the New World. The St. Thomas campus of the Univ.
of the Virgin Islands is outside the town.
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