A parade saved this iconic Pierce County windmill. It came from a Sears Catalog in 1902
All it took was a few dollars to preserve an iconic structure in Edgewood.
The Nyholm Windmill at 2284 Meridian Ave. E. previously stood near Meridian Avenue and Jovita Boulevard. In 1980, locals got a $5 parade permit from Pierce County to move it to its current location.
“My wife had the bright idea,” longtime Edgewood resident Don Nelson said.
It would have taken more time to get a moving permit, Nelson said. The windmill needed to move because a company had bought the land it sat on and planned to demolish it if no one could move the structure. They moved the windmill by splitting it up and using two cranes and two flatbed trucks.
“We had approximately 15 vehicles that traveled north on Meridian from the windmill site to the fire station. There were people along the route cheering for us. That, by definition, is a parade,” Nelson told The News Tribune via email.
Nelson used to be the chief of the Edgewood Volunteer Fire Department. He is also a member of the Edgewood-Nyholm Windmill Association, a group of volunteers who have cared for and maintained the windmill for the past four decades.
After 44 years, the association has turned responsibility for the windmill over to the city. On May 9, the city held a ceremonial signing with the association.
Nelson said the association sold the windmill because the group wanted to have it on a city-owned property so that it would remain a historic symbol for the city.
At the June 11 Edgewood City Council meeting, council members unanimously approved the purchase of the land the windmill sits on for $172,000 from East Pierce Fire & Rescue.
Mayor Dave Olson said the windmill is a part of the community’s identity. When East Pierce Fire approached the city about buying the land it sits on, the city explored the idea of doing so, he said.
When asked if the city will care for the windmill now, Olson wrote in an email that routine maintenance is “extremely minimal,” and it should only require a quarterly check-in.
The windmill is over 40 feet tall, including its fan blades. Peter Nyholm built it in 1902. Nyholm came to America from Denmark in the 1890s. He lived in Tacoma, and he bought property in Edgewood a couple of years after that.
Nelson said Nyholm bought the windmill from a Sears, Roebuck & Co. Catalogue for $125. Olson said the city paid $125 when it recently purchased the windmill, as a throwback to the 1902 price.
Nyholm built the four-story windmill around a well, and he built a woodworking shop on the second floor.
Nyholm was a stonemason and a woodworker. He provided water from the well to his neighbors and gifted them furniture he made in his shop. The well structure is still on the first floor of the windmill.
The windmill is made of cedar logs, shiplap and cedar shingles. It was one of the first buildings in the city.
Nelson said people care a lot about the windmill because it is the city’s symbol. When the city was incorporated in 1996, it adopted the windmill as a trademark. The windmill is depicted on city business cards, letterheads and street light poles, among other things.
Nelson said the windmill is “the rallying call of the city.”
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