Boyd's Windmill

Boyd's Windmill
Origin
Mill name Boyd's Mill
Mill location Middletown, RI
Coordinates 41°30′03″N 71°16′11″W / 41.5007°N 71.2696°W / 41.5007; -71.2696Coordinates: 41°30′03″N 71°16′11″W / 41.5007°N 71.2696°W / 41.5007; -71.2696
Operator(s) Middletown Historical Society
Year built 1810
Information
Purpose Corn mill
Type Smock mill
Storeys Three-story smock
Base storeys A few courses of brick
Smock sides Eight sides
Number of sails Eight sails
Type of sails Common sails
Boyd's Windmill
NRHP Reference # 01000018
Added to NRHP January 26, 2001[1]

Boyd's Windmill, also known as Boyd's Wind Grist Mill, is a historic smock mill at Paradise Valley Park on Prospect Avenue in Middletown, Rhode Island. John Peterson built the windmill on Old Mill Lane in Portsmouth, Rhode Island in 1810, and William Boyd purchased it in 1815. It originally had four common sails, but four more were added by the family. The mill is a timber-frame structure, octagonal in shape, and about 30 feet (9.1 m) tall, with a rotating cap powered by eight vanes with canvas sheets. The grindstones in the middle of the mill are Fall River granite; the upper one, which is connected to the power mechanisms, rotates six times for each turn of the mill's main shaft. In 1916 Benjamin Boyd removed the original vanes and powered the mill using a gasoline engine. It is one of only two windmills (out of what was estimated to be more than thirty) to survive on Aquidneck Island.[2]

The windmill was restored by the Middletown Historical Society after receiving it as a donation in 1990 and moving it to Paradise Valley Park in Middletown. The windmill is open to the public on Sunday afternoons in July, August and September.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2008-04-15). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ "NRHP nomination for Boyd's Windmill" (PDF). Rhode Island Preservation. Retrieved 2014-10-19.

External links

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