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Watch Hill Windmills
LOCAL HISTORY by CAPTAIN JACK SPRATT
Once a necessary part of town life, these structures came with the view
Along the sand and boulder shoreline plains of Cape Cod, Long Island, Rhode Island and many of the small islands of the northeast, windmills were a ubiquitous part of the landscape. For over a decade, from 1887 to 1901, windmills were synonymous with Watch Hill, as depicted in a post card of July 3, 1900:
Above: Postcard of Echo Lodge windmill and water tower in Watch Hill, circa 1900.
WINDMILLS OF WATCH HILL
The history of windmills at Watch Hill is a short one. For just over a decade from 1888 to 1901, windmills, wind-pumps or wind engines as they were known, some with water tank towers and observation platforms, became wind water pumps were a must-have for the fashionable Watch Hill colony and a big step up from hand pumping water.
Walking around Watch Hill today you might wonder why so many of these stately shingled cottages have a limited, or no, view of the ocean, river or bay. When the majority of these homes were built between 1887 and 1900 the object of landscaping, by such wellknown landscape architects as the Olmstead Brothers, was to minimize the planting of trees to emphasize the natural, windswept, rugged terrain and seascape. In fact, tree and shrub planting was socially unacceptable and frowned upon. If you took away the trees today you would see that these cottages up on the hills of Watch Hill would have magnificent seascape views, ideal for harnessing the wind. However, windmills were considered a blemish upon the glacial canvas.
The unadorned, cheap, iron mail-order windmills, with their squeaky mechanisms and very loud fans, were not only considered an eyesore, but a noise nuisance. The windmills became a contentious issue among neighbors as well as hotel guests, as a Providence Journal article of July 29, 1900 notes:
“There about as many windmills, all told, as there are cottages; looming up about the homes, and the continual revolving of their patent…, so many of them, located everywhere, makes you feel that you have struck a pretty lively place. They say that the Watch Hill windmills are a cure for insomnia, at least until the novelty wears off, and that will not take long.”
a most unexpected feature of the Watch Hill landscape. The windmills were designed to pull water from ponds, cisterns and dug wells. Windmills were the latest gizmo in a world where the telegraph, electricity and the automobile were just becoming practical. The
Above: This windmill on Bay Street was in close proximity to Ocean House.
TOWN WATER ARRIVES
The formation of the Watch Hill Fire District led the way for the introduction of town water in 1901 from the White Rock aquifer which put an end to the windmill blight. The undesirability of the windmills was referenced in another Providence Journal article from June 2, 1902:
“There are 111 cottages now on the Hill, and all will be occupied this season. The introduction of the water service last year (1901) has caused the removal of the scores of windmills that formerly dotted the hills. The cottagers are glad to have these UNSIGHTLY machines gone, as they harmonized but little with the handsome summer homes.”
LAST OF THE WINDMILLS
The windmill at Highland Lodge (above), built in 1898 lies prostrate on Westerly Road at the corner of Ninigret Avenue, no match for the maelstrom known as the storm of the century, the Great New England Hurricane of September 21, 1938. So went the last vestige of the many Watch Hill windmills, not always appreciated by residents and visitors, though as Miguel de Cervantes writes in Don Quixote: “Sometimes the scariest dragons and the fiercest giants, usually turn out to be no more than windmills.”
WIND POWER TODAY
Today wind is the fastest growing source of renewable power. Looking southeast at Block Island, RI, from the Ocean House at Watch Hill, you can see the first American offshore windfarm with its five turbines and blades reaching 646 feet above the ground. In Fishers Island Sound, the engineer and inventor Dean Kamen has enabled North Dumpling Island to function completely off the power grid, using a wind generator, a solar array that follows the sun, a battery storage bank and LED lighting. North Dumpling Island is part of Captain Jack’s Historical Tours.
To schedule a private cruise, historical excursion or Block Island Windfarm tour with Captain Jack, visit oceanhouseri.com.
Above: After the 1938 hurricane, a windmill falls at Westerly Road and Ninigret Avenue. Above: An offshore wind farm is located nearly four miles from Block Island, RI.
5 MODERN PHRASES
Did you know these common expressions are derived from windmills?
1. Coming to a grinding halt — The result of wind dying. 2. Daily grind — Each day, when a mill is up and running, there is a steady and somewhat monotonous hum. 3. Take your turn — The next person in line has their corn or wheat ground on the millstone. 4. Put your nose to the grindstone — When operating a heavy grindstone, millers bent their heads down very closely to push the wheel. 5. Three sheets to the wind — If only three of the four arms are set with sails, a windmill is unbalanced and tipsy.
Acknowledgements:
Ardi Schneider for sourcing many images of Watch Hill windmills from her book Watch Hill Then & Now, Ardith M. Schneider and Roberta M Burkhardt (The Watch Hill Preservation Society, R.I., 2005). // The following assisted in research: Zachary J. Garceau, Archivist, Westerly Historical Society; and Nina Wright, Local History and Special Collections Librarian, Westerly Library & Wilcox Park. // Edward N. Burdick (1866–1935), photographer, took many of the images. Frank Coy (18561929), a local realtor during the windmill period, appears in some of the photos. // Watch Hill Life (Watch Hill, R.I.) 1894-1902, published in Watch Hill, R.I: J.C. Kebabian // Watch Hill Through Time, Chaplin B. Barnes. (The Watch Hill Conservancy, 2005).
Captain Jack Spratt Captain Jack, Master and Captain of sailing vessel TRIM AGAIN and Motor yacht ENCORE, is a Watch Hill resident, fire department member and has sailed these waters for over 35 years. Known for historical talks at Ocean House and Mystic Seaport Museum, he’s written three books on area history. Look for his talks at OH during the summer months. To learn more and for additional reading, visit Captain Jack Spratt’s blog watch-hill-RI.com.
