NORFOLK, Va. — Roads will close briefly in Williamsburg Monday starting at 6 a.m. to accommodate the move of the Colonial Williamsburg Windmill, The city of Williamsburg said.
The windmill will be moved from its current location near the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Visitor Center to its new location at the intersection of Francis Street and Bucktrout Lane.
Colonial Williamsburg staff led by Matthew Webster will partner with contractors including B.E. Hassett Millwrights and Prillaman Crane and Rigging to move the 28,000 pound mill house — the body of the Colonial Williamsburg windmill — to it’s new site via a flatbed truck, a spokesperson for Colonial Williamsburg said.
The voyage will begin in the great hopes parking lot. It will then travel south down Henry Street, across Duke of Gloucester Street, right onto Blair Street, right onto Francis Street and left onto Bucktrout Lane to its new home.
The aim of the move is to improve visitor access to the iconic landmark and to create a more engaging and immersive guest experience around 18th-century farming, the spokesperson said.
Most of the windmill’s components have already been moved, and the mill house is the last piece of the puzzle.
Unlike other windmills, the Colonial Williamsburg windmill is a “post” windmill. That means the entire two-story mill house and sail rotate together atop a post-and-trestle base. A miller rotates the structure to the wind using a wheeled tailpole boom that protrudes from the house.
Windmills are a part of the state’s heritage.
The “Frenchmen’s Map” of Williamsburg shows a windmill located along present-day South Henry Street. And documentational evidence shows that windmills were also transported in the 18th century.
