Windmill

Old Mill – Newport Tower // c.1670

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No structure in Newport is as hotly debated than the “Newport Tower” located in Touro Park. The old stone, cylindrical tower stands like an ancient relic of ancient Europe, just dropped in downtown Newport. For centuries, people have debated the structure’s history and use. Some say this structure was built by Viking masons who visited North America 1,000 years ago, while other theories (more rooted in fact) share another story. The tower was located at the upper end of the plot behind the now-demolished mansion built by Benedict Arnold, the first colonial governor of Rhode Island (his grandson was the infamous Benedict Arnold, the traitor who switched sides to fight with the British. In 1677, Arnold mentions “my stone built Wind Mill” in his will is evidence that the tower was once used as a windmill. However, some state that there is no reference to Arnold ever having the structure built, with some stating that he simply repurposed the building to be used as the base of a windmill. In 1837, Danish archaeologist Carl Christian Rafn proposed a Viking origin for the tower in his book Antiquitates Americanæ. This hypothesis is predicated on the uncertainty of the southward extent of the early Norse explorations of North America, particularly in regard to the actual location of Vinland, where Leif Erikson is believed to have first landed around 1000 CE, nearly five centuries before the voyages of Christopher Columbus and John Cabot.. Rafn’s popularization of the theory led to a flurry of interest and “proofs” of Norse settlement in the area. Mortar tests completed in the 20th century basically prove this theory to be false, and date the structure to the middle of the 1600s, but it is fun to imagine it is much older!

Bronson Windmill // 1894

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Located in a more rural part of Fairfield, Connecticut, I drove past this massive tower just off the road. Intrigued, I doubled back to find out what it was, and learned it was once a windmill! The over eighty-foot tall shingled tower was constructed in 1894 as part of a large country estate. Frederic Bronson (1851-1900) was a prominent, gilded age lawyer in New York City. He accumulated massive wealth representing many elite families, eventually becoming a member of the “Four Hundred”, a list of the 400 most powerful (rich and connected) people of New York society. In the early 1890s, Bronson constructed a summer estate in Fairfield, CT, known as Verna Farm. A part of this estate the windmill which pumped water from a well 75 feet below ground into a 7,500-gallon wooden storage tank inside the tower. The estate eventually became the Fairfield Country Day School, and the windmill (no longer in use) was gifted to the town. Eventually, it was leased by Sprint, and the telecommunications firm restored the windmill and installed a cellphone tower in its interior.

Eastham Windmill // 1793

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Built in 1793, the Eastham Windmill on the old Town Green is the oldest workable gristmill on Cape Cod. Typical of Cape Cod, Eastham’s windmill is an octagonal , “hat and smock” or Flemish design in which the revolving top or hat can be rotated to direct the sails into the wind. Local historians contend that Thomas Paine, a noted early millwright and resident of Eastham, most likely built the Eastham Windmill in the late eighteenth century. Some sources state that the windmill was likely built in Plymouth and later moved to Truro and eventually to Eastham in 1793. In 1895, the women of the Village Improvement Society raised money to purchase the windmill and two adjoining properties from private ownership for $ 113.50. Around the turn of the twentieth century, the windmill became a local tourist attraction and the subject of postcards and souvenirs. The windmill is now the main attraction of the annual Eastham Windmill Weekend.