Windmill de Adriaan
Papentorenvest 1a, Haarlem
Available as A4 print and as a card.
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History
In 1778 the Amsterdam entrepreneur Adriaan de Boois of the municipality of Haarlem gets permission to build a windmill. He puts his industrial mill on the substructure of the old Goê Vrouwtoren near the center of the city. This makes the blades high above the Spaarne and catch every wind. On May 19, 1779, Stellingmolen De Adriaan is opened. De Boois grinds tuff to tras for years. Shells and oak bark are also crushed.
In 1802, De Adriaan was sold to a tobacconist who, until 1865, grinded tobacco rolls into snuff. Again the mill changes owner and function. It is being converted into a wind and steam corn mill. From that time, corn is ground in the mill.
In 1925 De Adriaan is bought by De Hollandsche Molen. Grinding of flour continues until the mill suffers heavy damage in 1930 due to a storm. On 23 April 1932 he went up in flames. Thousands of Haarlemmers look powerless.
Reconstruction
Haarlemmers want De Adriaan back, but because of the crisis years and the Second World War that does not happen. The Haerlem Association and the Hollandsche Molen Association remain committed to rebuilding.
In 1963 the municipality of Haarlem became the owner of the land on which the mill stood and also assumed a re-construction obligation. That last promise is forgotten in the years that followed. Then the Molen De Adriaan Foundation was established in 1991, in 1996 the chairman of the Foundation discovered the piece about the re-construction obligation in old archives.
The municipality will make one million guilders available for the reconstruction of De Adriaan. The total costs amount to 2.5 million guilders. The support of the European Union and various subsidies bring the implementation of the construction plans closer. The business community, sponsors and residents of Haarlem jointly contribute money: NLG 900,000.
On 23 April 2002, 70 years after the fire, De (new) Adriaan is officially opened.
SOURCE: MOLENADRIAAN.NL