Beaches · Northwest

Oppenheimer Beach

Oppenheimer Beach is the public half of a beach most of St. John still calls, in full, Gibney Beach. The Gibney family bought 40 acres along Hawksnest Bay in 1950 and built the home that anchors the private side of the property; in 1957, physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer bought a small adjoining parcel at the beach's far eastern end and built a modest cottage there for his family, spending parts of several years on St. John in the years after his security-clearance hearings. After Oppenheimer's death, his daughter Toni inherited the cottage and, before her own death, arranged for it to be deeded to the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands rather than sold privately. The territorial government rebuilt it as a simple concrete structure with a kitchen and large porch, and it now operates as a rentable community center, available for a modest fee for birthdays, family reunions, and weddings — a use that's made this quiet stretch of sand something of a local landmark distinct from the still privately-owned Gibney beach immediately next to it.