The Virgin Islands Port Authority (VIPA) is last in a line of federal and local government agencies to manage the ports of the United States Virgin Islands.

 

UNITED STATES NAVY

​

The US Navy was the first administrator of the islands and also managed the port facilities.  The U.S. made a wartime decision to construct a submarine base on the island of St. Thomas. A naval airbase also replaced the modest airstrip located at Bourne Field in Lindbergh Bay with a military air hangar and 600-foot runway.  This airbase was later named the Harry S. Truman Airport and renamed the Cyril E. King Airport on Oct. 3, 1984. The U.S. Marine Corps Air Station at St. Thomas was established on December 1, 1941, with the redesign of the Marine Corps Air Facility at Bourne Field.  Bourne Field, located two miles west of Charlotte Amalie, had been commissioned on September 1, 1935.  The air station was made part of the Navy Operating Base, St. Thomas on March 4, 1943. 

 

During World War II, the station included a seaplane base at Lindbergh Bay, as well as a leased emergency field located on the island of Anguilla. 

​

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR

​

The U.S. military’s need for the U.S. Virgin Islands eventually ended.  Control of the ports was turned over to the US Department of Interior from 1931 through 1969.  Following the end of the war, the air station was reduced to a caretaker facility on September 30, 1946, and further reduced to inactive status on December 1, 1946.  The facility was closed on February 16, 1948.

 

The Department of Interior at one point leased the former military properties in the US Virgin Islands and some farmlands on St. Croix via a lessee the St. Thomas Development Authority.

​

THE VIRGIN ISLANDS CORPORATION (VI CORP)

​

The Virgin Islands Corporation (VI Corp) was a wholly owned government corporation created by the Virgin Islands Corporation Act of June 30, 1949. (48 U.S.C. 1407), and amended on Sep. 2, 1958, as successor to the Virgin Islands Company which was incorporated in 1934.  The Corporation’s principal offices were located in St. Croix.  Management of the Corporation was vested in a 7-member Board of Directors with the Secretary of the Interior as its chair.  The Corporation was charted through June 30, 1969, unless dissolved by an act of Congress.  In July 1954, the U.S. Department of Interior In July 1954 assigned the properties formerly managed by the St. Thomas Development Authority to VI Corp.

​

The major revenue-producing activities of the Corporation included growing sugar cane, manufacturing raw sugar, and the generation and distribution of electric power.  It also delivered potable water to the Government of the Virgin Islands from salt water distillation facilities and managed certain Navy-owned properties on St. Thomas, such as the Naval Submarine Base and the Marine Corps Air Facility.  Other miscellaneous revenue-producing activities include the administration of an agricultural and industrial loan program, management of a small livestock herd, and providing housing for employees and others on St. Croix.  The Corporation's portfolio included  80 housing units rented to federal and insular government employees and private individuals, 6 hotels, 1 guesthouse, 4 piers, a beach club, a golf course and clubhouse, about 35 additional buildings, 3 water systems, transportation equipment, and other miscellaneous units. Furthermore, the Corporation engaged in non-revenue producing activities designed to promote the economic development and general welfare of the Virgin Islands population.  Dr. Kenneth Bartlett served as president. In 1961, former Massachusetts state senator, Robert P. Cramer resigned as a senator and moved with his family to Christiansted, St. Croix to accept the appointment by U.S. President John F. Kenney to serve as the president of VI Corp.

 

The programs run by the Corporation were ultimately terminated on June 30, 1965, and the Corporation itself was dissolved on July 1, 1966.