Pointe Claire windmill to get facelift

BY ANDY BLATCHFORD

andy.blatchford@transcontinental.ca

Pointe Claire plans to invest $500,000 to begin the restoration of its iconic windmill next year.

The initiative means the revamped structure could be open for public visits as early as 2009, the year of the building’s tricentennial.

For the last five years, resident Claude Arsenault has lobbied the city, the province and the windmill’s owners, Congregation of Notre Dame, to find the funds and reach an agreement.

When he saw the windmill’s restoration listed on Pointe Claire’s 2007 capital investment list last month, it was as if “all the planets were aligned.�

“It was the right timing,� he said. “(We have) good momentum now because everyone is willing to restore the windmill.

“The windmill is the identification for the people of Pointe Claire.�

For Arsenault, pushing to have the building restored is a personal endeavour. The 49-year-old studied at nearby Ecole Marguerite-Bourgeoys and fished from the point in the mill’s shadow as a child.

The second-oldest building in Pointe Claire, and one of the oldest buildings on the island of Montreal, the windmill will undergo three phases of renovations, said Arsenault, president of the Société pour la Sauvegarde du Patrimoine de Pointe Claire. The funding will cover the first two.

Replacing masonry, doors and windows will be followed by the construction of a new roof. The mill’s mechanics will also be refurbished if additional investment is secured, he said.

“We want to restore it as close as possible as it was built in 1709,� said Arsenault, who toured 70 working windmills in France, conducted hours of interviews and snapped 5,000 photos in an information-gathering journey earlier this year.

Pointe Claire’s windmill is one of 18 left in Quebec, so Arsenault convinced the Ministry of Culture to subsidize the cost of his trip. The rest came from his pocket, he said.

City director general Jean-Denis Jacob hopes to meet with the Sisters of Notre Dame and St. Joachim’s governing committee to iron out details in the coming months.

“There are a lot of conditions for that amount of money being spent,� he said. “We would certainly want to have some sort of public access to the windmill if we are to put that type of money in it.�

The project could also be eligible for funding from Quebec, Jacob said.