Shelter Island Windmill is an historic

windmill A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called windmill sail, sails or blades, specifically to mill (grinding), mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and ...

north of Manwaring Road in Shelter Island,

Suffolk County, New York Suffolk County () is the easternmost county in the U.S. state of New York. It is mainly located on the eastern end of Long Island, but also includes several smaller islands. According to the 2020 United States census, the county's populatio ...

. It was built in 1810. ''See also:'' Master Millwright Nathaniel Dominy V (1770–1852) was the architect and builder of the windmill. The windmill has been on Shelter Island since 1840 and at its current location since 1926 on the Sylvester Manor farm.

History

The Shelter Island Windmill (Sylvester's Mill) is one of eleven surviving 18th and early-19th century wind-powered gristmills on Long Island. The mill was built in 1810 at Southold for a company whose partners were Benjamin Horton, Nathaniel Overton, Moses Cleveland, Barnabas Case and Joseph Halliock. It operated year-round grinding wheat, buckwheat, corn, rye, meslin and provender for locals. Partner Moses Cleveland, a carpenter, performed routine maintenance and repairs on the mill during its heyday 1821–1823. The windmill was purchased in 1840 by Joseph Congdon and moved to Shelter Island where it stood at the center of the village, near the library and high school. Lore was that the mill was moved to Shelter Island to replace another which had burnt, there was no need for a new grist-mill by 1840. Congdon, who was a miller, operated the windmill until about 1855 when it was sold to Smith Baldwin. The mill ceased to operate sometime before 1879 when Lillian Horsford, purchased it to preserve it as an antique. The mill was put back in operation during 1917–1918 to provide meal and flour for the inhabitants of the Island during the food conservation period of the First World War. In 1926 Miss Cornelia Horsford moved the mill to the grounds of Sylvester Manor, where it remains today.

NRHP

It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1978. It is a part of the Sylvester Manor's educational farm.

References

External links

* Windmills completed in 1810 Shelter Island (town), New York Windmills in New York (state) Agricultural buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Historic American Engineering Record in New York (state) Buildings and structures in Suffolk County, New York National Register of Historic Places in Suffolk County, New York Smock mills in the United States {{SuffolkCountyNY-NRHP-stub