CW Windmill On a Midnight Move

By Amber Lester Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Robertson's Windmill at Colonial Williamsburg.

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation will be moving Robertson’s Windmill from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. Thursday to Friday. The windmill is moving from its current location at the rear of the Peyton Randolph property to a site near Great Hopes Plantation. There, it will serve as a visual “beacon” to visitors, setting the scene for their journey into the past.

The move is expected to take about four hours. It’s planned to take place in the middle of the night to minimize the impact on traffic. As the move takes place, portions of some public streets will be closed to traffic. A moving truck will carry the windmill north on North England Street, then west on Lafayette Street and north on Henry Street to Route 132-Y, then to the Great Hopes Plantation area.

CW has enlisted the help of Expert Housemovers to relocate the windmill. The company worked with CW in 1993 to move the Dora Armistead House west along Duke of Gloucester Street to its current location on North Henry Street. Expert Housemovers also moved the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in shore from the Atlantic Ocean.

It will take 12-18 months for the windmill to be fully reassembled; large wooden elements, such as the spars and wind beam, will be cured. At the windmill’s new site, Historic Trades artisans will restore the mill body and its support structure. The windmill will then be reassembled in its new spot.

While it is known a windmill existed on the Randolph farm, a foundation has never been found. The last known mention of a windmill there was in 1723. Robertson’s windmill, first constructed in 1957, is a reproduction of one owned by William Robertson, a prominent lawyer in Colonial Williamsburg. Historians believe his windmill was at the corner of North England and Scotland streets.