Prescott, Ont., house with historic connection to the Battle of the Windmill goes on market

Here’s your chance to own a piece of Canadian history.

A house located just east of Prescott, Ont., is going on the market. Built in the early 1820s as a grain storehouse, it has a connection to the national historic site across the road, marking the Battle of the Windmill, a conflict fought in November 1838.

The stone structure sits about 150 yards from the windmill itself. Property owner John Warren says they were fixing up the house when they got a real surprise.

“We took the stucco off and we found some bullet marks in the side wall here and some grape shot laying around on the property,” Warren explained.

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According to the Canadian Encyclopedia the Battle of the Windmill was one of a series of raids launched along the Canada-U.S. border in the summer and fall of 1838. The battle was fought from 12 to 16 November near Prescott, in Upper Canada, and ended in a defeat for the invaders from the United States.

Warren says it’s a tough decision to leave after 30 years, but he does so having enjoyed every historical minute of it.

“We started a Friends of the Windmill group which kept the windmill open for tourists and kids in the summer and hired a couple of students for that,” Warren said. “And we all got very, very wrapped up in the history, so I considered myself sort of a curator of the historic property.”

Administered by Parks Canada, the Battle of the Windmill National Historic Site Canada is just a portion of a battlefield located on Windmill Point overlooking the St. Lawrence River in the Township of Edwardsburg/Cardinal.

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