St. John Historical Society hosts open house, shares historical collection

ST. JOHN — The St. John Historical Society has a new place to call home — an office upstairs at the St. John Properties Building that’s to the right of Mongoose Junction.

“I’m very optimistic that there will be a lot of people who will get to know us now that the office is ready for viewing,” Lonnie Willis, St. John Historical Society vice president, told The Daily News. The nonprofit hosted an open house Wednesday afternoon and welcomed the community to explore their collection of Caribbean books and artifacts. Willis said that the group has had the office since Jan. 2024, and they’ve been preparing it to act as a “mini museum”.

She noted that the society has been collecting artifacts for more than 50 years, but the collection was placed into storage bins as they were bouncing between temporary spaces. “We had very little access — if someone was doing research and wanted to know what we had, it was very difficult to find,” Willis said. Now the new office has space to display artifacts, including woven baskets made on St. John, clay pipes, a cannon ball, coal pot, porcelain plates and handmade dolls to name a few.