The Alley Park Windmill

The image of the windmill plays a role in the history of New York City. Symbolic of Holland, a windmill appears on the official seal and flag of the City of New York; Dutch settlers in old New York used windmills extensively in industry. Surprisingly few old-fashioned windmills have survived in NYC, but in the Alley Pond Park Environmental Center there’s a reasonable facsimile.

The Alley Pond Park Environmental Center (APEC), entered on Northern Boulevard just east of Cross Island Parkway, features a variety of short and long trails around the 635 acres of creeks, wetlands and kettle ponds of the park. It was founded in 1972 and is a “learning laboratory” with exhibits on the natural habitats and inhabitants of the park, with over 30,000 schoolchildren visiting per year, but its serenity and separation from city clamor attracts thousands of adults as well.

The original windmill in the Alley Park-Douglaston area supplied water to a farming community on today’s Douglas Manor peninsula and was built about 1870 on what is today Arleigh Road. When exclusive homes were built on the peninsula, the mill was converted to a small two-room residence and enjoyed a quiet existence for the next 8 decades, albeit with its original identity as a windmill pretty much removed.

When the Arleigh Road property was sold, the old mill was in danger of demolition, but a committee formed to save it and in 1986 it was moved to Northern Boulevard to the Alley Pond Park Environmental Center, and a new foundation constructed and well drilled.

A local hoodlum thought it would be fun to burn down the newly restored old windmill shortly after it was installed in Alley Pond Park. Happily, funds were found to build a new windmill in the old one’s image. Today, APEC hosts regular tours and demonstrations at the mill, which is used to pump water from deep underground, and is used in the constant replenishment of the park’s plant life. For information on APEC, visit alleypond.com.