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.
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.