We see the vaulted windmill design (where “tunnels” exist in the base that the mill is built on) on a few sugar windmills on St Croix. It is quite unique, originating on St Thomas with the construction of the mill on Estate Contant. The “cornerstone” of the windmill of Estate Contant was laid by Governor General Ernst Frederik von Waltersdorff in 1790. Architecturally, it is the most elaborate of the windmills on St. Thomas. It was converted to a residence in the 1940’s, then a nightclub, and is now a church.
On St John, the windmill on Estate Hammer Farm was constructed sometime between 1800 and 1833, probably about 1820, by an unknown builder, and it is this design that we see today as the vaulted mills of Diamond Ketura, Castle Coakley and The Sight.
