The former Territorial Courthouse for St. Croix was completed in February 1984. The building, designed by John R. Rolllings and Richard E. Baringer, sits on the historic Kingshill Estate situated almost center island of St. Croix and is tropic and majestic in concept. Its exterior courtyard allows for the full flow of natural air in and through the building.
The two-story steel frame structure is built on a six acre tract of government property and is 50,200 square feet. There are a total of six courtrooms. Three courtrooms are full-sized jury courtrooms with a seating capacity of eighty-five (85) persons. One ceremonial jury courtroom is larger with a seating capacity of One Hundred Fifty-five (155) persons. The Courthouse is outfitted with handicap access to both levels.
On June 19, 1998, the building was rededicated in honor of Richard Herbert Amphlett Leader, lawyer, a noted public speaker, collector of the culture of the Virgin Islands, writer, historian and advocate of the people. R. H. Amphlett Leader was born on St. Croix, Danish West Indies on November 18, 1889, and lived his entire life on the island. He was educated in the local school system in Christiansted where he was a member of the Brand Corps, a Danish Auxiliary composed of local young men; and he received further education at the Moravian College in Christiansted. Along with other boys his age, he formed a local hand-written newspaper entitled the “Boer's War Weekly Times,” which was edited by G. Anduze and was contributed to by such illustrious Virgin Islands names as Charles Lang Steel and David Hamilton Jackson, and later with contributions from Anduze. Leader and Anduze also published another hand-written newspaper entitled the “St. Croix Literary Gazette.”
He studied law by correspondence. He then attended and later graduated from the University of Illinois Law School. After serving as Postmaster of Fredericksted from 1920 to 1935, he entered into the practice of law. Throughout his life he was a public spirited individual and in the Third Legislature of the Virgin Islands recognized him through Resolution 132 as an exemplary civic leader, an unselfish public servant, a distinguished citizen who devoted a lifetime of dedicated service to the people of the Virgin Islands.
The R. H. Amphlett Leader Justice Center is a building of which the people of St. Croix in particular and the Virgin Islands in general can be justly proud. It was conceived and built with growth of the judiciary uppermost in the minds of its planners and designers.