No one ever uttered the words “renewable energy” but local windmills were an essential part of economic life here for two and a half centuries, used to grind grain, saw wood and pump water among other tasks. From the first windmill built in 1640 on the North Fork through much of the nineteenth century, windmills remained a primary form of power. Eleven of these windmills still exist in the Hamptons, either in private hands or in the public domain as historic restorations and museums. Together, they comprise the largest group of mills in the United States.
Local craftsmen rather than professional millwrights usually constructed them, and wind rather than water usually powered them since few streams or protected tidal inlets were available. Mills were considered so important to the welfare of the community that only the best materials and labor and the most advanced technology were utilized in construction. As a result they were costly to build and the expense generally had to be shared by partnerships.
East Hampton’s first mill after its settlement in 1648 was located on a stream five miles from the village (water mills are simpler to build than windmills) but nine years later a more accessible windmill was turning in the center of the village. The hamlet of Water Mill has preserved both a watermill and windmill as scenic reminders of its agrarian past.
A proposed wind farm three and a half miles off the Atlantic shore of Long Island was scuttled a few years ago so the eleven historic windmills are likely to remain our only ones for some time to come.