Fabyan Forest, Villa & Windmill

Last couple of weekends I have gone out to take some photographs. I have a laundry list of DIY tasks on my list that I am supposed to be doing, but work is so busy that I don't really seem to have the energy. The family are out of town in the UK for a few more weeks. Yesterday I went to shoot Fabyan Villa, it's Japanese garden and the restored windmill, out in Geneva, Kane County. Unfortunately the garden was closed for three different wedding shoots; so I will have to go back some other time and maybe take the kids.

I was able to watch them put up the sails and start up the windmill which was very cool. The guy climbing the wooden substructure to grab the sail cloth and unfurl it, then watch on a windy day how they adjusted the sail to make sure that it wasn't turning too fast. From their website...

Fabyan Forest Preserve was once part of the large country estate of George and Nelle Fabyan. They came to the Fox River Valley in the early 1900s and bought a farmhouse and 10 acres on the west bank of the Fox River. Over the following 20 years, they acquired 300-plus acres and developed the property into a fabulous estate they called “Riverbank.” After their deaths in 1936 and 1939, the Forest Preserve District of Kane County purchased the estate for this amazing preserve.

On the east side of Fabyan Forest Preserve, stands the majestic Fabyan Windmill. The 68-foot, 5-story structure was originally built by Louis Blackhaus, a German craftsman, between 1850 and 1860. The Windmill originally stood on a site in what is now Lombard, Illinois. In 1914, it was purchased by George Fabyan for about $8,000, and moved here to Riverbank.

After many years, the Windmill had fallen into disrepair. Third-generation Dutch Windmill Maker Lucas Verbij was contracted by the Forest Preserve District to tackle the tough job of restoring the Windmill. According to Verbij, “The Fabyan Windmill is the best example of an authentic Dutch windmill in the United States. Actually, it's a treasure, and would be the most popular windmill in the Netherlands (we currently have 1,000 windmills). Restoring Fabyan Windmill was as much honor as it was duty. The timing of the restoration project was critical, as the main beams of the tower were strongly rotting. When you hardly have old original U.S. windmills left, preserving what you have is so important.”

“There is German, Swedish and Dutch millwright work on this Windmill,” states Verbij. “It is one of the few in the world that is restored to operate by natural wind energy.”