Working on Sylvester Manor’s windmill, as four sails are installed on the 19th century mill, one of the iconic sites of Shelter Island. (Credit: Adam Bundy)
The 19th-century windmill at Sylvester Manor Educational Farm is now at full sail all four of the wings of the Island’s most readily identifiable links to its agricultural past were installed this week.
Last year, a group of students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts focused their research on designing a modern wind energy system to augment the windmill’s future energy production potential.
The windmill, built in 1810 as a gristmill to grind grain into flour, had ceased operating in the mid-1900s, and its driveshaft had rotted. With its interior works otherwise in good condition, it’s now being restored to once again grind grain grown on and off the farm.