Heritage structures move along to new viable working windmill sites

ZOETERWOUDE – It has been done before. Windmill De Zwaan in Holland, Michigan no doubt is the tallest immigrant anywhere but its move from the Netherlands involved a reassembly at its new site. The three, possibly four windmills of the Zouterwoude-Leiderdorp area, east of The Hague, will all stay within the same area. All the heritage landmark structures are standing in the way of either freeways, a railway route or too close to a highrise building. The relocation option is partly being considered because authorities do not want to hem the windmills in. Preferring to relocate them, officials want to preserve the windmills as working heritage structures on viable sites. In earlier times people simply tore down such privately-owned buildings but in recent decades nearly all the windmills have been designated as monuments. Windmills played a crucial role as the country’s pre-industrial factories and pre-engine pumping stations.