2 Photos
The windmill at Stony Brook Southampton. DANA SHAW
The windmill at Stony Brook Southampton. DANA SHAW
A group of Southampton Village residents wants to bring the historic windmill on the Stony Brook Southampton campus back to the village, where it originally stood.
Porter Bibb of the Southampton Village Windmill Project presented the idea to a receptive Village Board on Thursday, September 9, and explained that the plan hinges on New York State, which owns the windmill, saying yes.
Mr. Bibb said the windmill is currently in disarray and terrible condition.
“The windmill is locked, unused and generally inaccessible,” he told the board. “Its blades have been, for over two years, stored in a warehouse. … It’s going to last for maybe another 15 or 20 years before it collapses.”
If the windmill is moved back to its original location on its namesake Windmill Lane, it will be eligible for National Historic Landmark designation, according to Mr. Bibb. “It cannot be given that kind of credit where it is right now because it is not in its original site,” he said.
The Windmill Lane site is across the street from the Rogers Memorial Library and is owned by Southampton Town through the Community Preservation Fund.
Mr. Bibb’s slide show stated that the windmill was built in 1713 on Windmill Lane and was moved to Shinnecock Hills in 1880. Its new location would later become the site of Long Island University’s Southampton College, and then Stony Brook University bought the campus in 2006.
“Technically, the windmill sits on their property, but they don’t own it — we own it,” Mr. Bibb said. “The people of New York actually signed a bill of sale and got the deed to the property, and the person who has to give us permission to take a piece of state property off of state property is the governor.”
He said the group has yet to speak with Governor Kathy Hochul but she is “very sympathetic to historical and preservation matters.”
Should the Village Board decide to go forward with the move, it could be complete in the first quarter of 2022, Mr. Bibb said.
Siamak Samii, a former chairman of the Southampton Village Planning Commission, said the windmill would function as an anchor on the Nugent Street and Windmill Lane end of the village.
“We are the only village on the East End that does not have a windmill. Sag Harbor, East Hampton, Water Mill, Bridgehampton — they all have their windmills,” Mr. Samii said. “I think we’d all be proud to bring this windmill, which originally did sit on this area, back to this village.
“And this is at no cost to the village,” he continued. “This is all private funds being gathered. We just need the village as a governmental entity to represent us in this process with the State of New York.”
The expected cost is $1 million to disassemble, move and reassemble the windmill, and $100,000 annually to operate it.
Village Board member Roy Stevenson noted that he has met with Mr. Bibb and Mr. Samii on this issue a couple of times and offered to assist the committee and represent the village before state agencies. “It would be outstanding for the village to have a windmill on Windmill Lane — a windmill that comes from Southampton,” he said.
Mayor Jesse Warren said the board is happy and eager to assist. “In the absolute worst-case scenario, if we are unable to get the windmill over here, we’d also be interested in having a conversation about a replica,” he added. “I know that’s not the ideal choice, but if that is the only choice, then that’s also a choice that we’d be willing to entertain.”
