Ebenezer Gardens

In 1904, Crown Princess Louise of Denmark founded the West Indian Committee for Child Care and sent two deaconesses to St. Croix to help combat the high infant mortality rate on the island. By 1917, there were three facilities: a Queen Louise Home for Children in both Frederiksted and Christiansted, and the Ebenezer Orphanage for Girls in Frederiksted. When the United States purchased the Danish West Indies in 1917, control of the three orphanages was transferred to the Lutheran Church in America, and in 1960 to the Lutheran Welfare Society. In 1967, control and ownership of Queen Louise Home was conveyed to a local board of directors and became Lutheran Social Services of the Virgin Islands (LSSVI).