Morgan Lewis Sugar Mill

Sugar-producing windmills were a dime a dozen on the small Caribbean island of Barbados, ubiquitous as standpipes, mongooses and flying fish. Today, the Morgan Lewis Windmill is the last one standing — one of only two functioning sugar mills remaining in the entire world, according to the World Monuments Fund.

Barbadians are hugely proud of the structure. An they should be — the wind-powered workhouses stands as an evocative link to the past and has been identified as one of the island’s seven postage stamp-worthy natural and architectural wonders alongside Harrison’s Cave, the Bridgetown synagogue and a pair of particularly girthy baobab trees.

The Morgan Lewis Windmill is also a survivor. Decommissioned from commercial sugar production in 1945, the structure was handed over to the Barbados National Trust to be used a museum and “symbol of the economic and social history of the island.” Long story short, the building’s upkeep was prohibitively expensive and it gradually fell into grave disrepair. In 1996, the windmill appeared on the World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites, which stressed the urgent need for preservation-minded intervention. Over the next couple years, the structure was treated to an extensive facelift — a complete dismantling and restoration, really — and reopened to the public as a heritage site, functional and more striking than ever, in 1999. (6)

Old ruins at the Sugar Mill

Attached to the top, this wheel would rotate on the ground around the mill. You can see the stone around in a circular pattern.