Joe Ule's Windmill – July 1955

 

November 2023 view courtesy of Lorain County Auditor website

A recent view

Another local landmark that was highlighted in the Lorain Journal back in July 1953 was Joe Ule's windmill on Kolbe Road. It was featured in an interesting article written by James Howard that ran in the newspaper on July 20th. At that point, the windmill was still under construction.

The article is a great profile of Joe Ule and reveals his philosophy of being self-sufficient through organic farming. As for his windmill, the article notes, "When the windmill is completed, an electric generator will be activated by the wind power and will in turn operate a giant mill for grinding the specially grown grains. Another unusual feature will be a small sawmill also to be powered by the windmill."

The Journal checked in with Ule two years later, as reported in this article that ran in the December 26, 1957 edition.

At that time, Ule was working on a 50-foot log to serve as the main shaft of the windmill. The article notes that Ule "has been working on the windmill for the past seven years. He estimated that the sweep will be put in operation in about three to four years. And the entire windfall mechanism should be finished in eight to nine years, he added."

A day later, the Journal ran the photo below showing Ule and helper Joseph Rodriguez using his giant lathe to work on the 50-foot log.

It appears that Ule was considering the development of some sort of park on his property involving the windmill. A short article in the March 31, 1961 Journal noted that Black River Township trustees weren't exactly sure what sort of zoning was needed for what was referred to by the City Building Inspector as a "Disneyland type development."

But it was not to be. Ule and his family moved to Florida about two years later, and he passed away there in 1969.

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Joe Ule and his windmill, as well as his "storybook house," have been the subject of several blog posts.

Own the Windmill on Kolbe Road

Courtesy of Howard Hanna

Want to own a longtime Lorain landmark? 

Here’s your big chance. The well-known windmill located on Kolbe Ro, converted to a residence as a labor of love by Tom Philipps, is currently for sale. It's listed with Howard Hanna Real Estate Services. Alicia Parkinson, ABR, CNE, HOD, RRS is the listing agent.

Courtesy Bing Maps

Here's the link to the Howard Hanna listing. It includes some fascinating photos of the rarely seen interior.

As it notes, the 1.5 acres property (with an additional two acres available for purchase) "gently slopes to Beaver Creek, where you can enjoy fly fishing or hiking through the wooded 30-acre Kennedy Park. 

"Beautiful views of FoxCreek Golf add to its awesome location, about a mile from the shores of Lake Erie. 

"Set back off the road, an inviting herringbone brick walkway and circular drive bring you across a mill stone threshold, where you step into the fairytale tower and first floor living room, with gas fireplace and full bath. 

“Floor 2 houses a huge kitchen with custom cabinets, porcelain floors, tile counters, stainless appliances, and glass table looking down into the first floor. The second floor also offers a half bath, laundry, and French doors to balcony. 

“Floor 3 is master bedroom and bath, with outdoor deck encircling entire windmill. 

Courtesy Lorain County Auditor

“Floor 4 is a second bedroom with full bath and French doors to balcony. Floor 5 is a third bedroom or bonus room, with French doors to balcony. The attic is the roof, designed to rotate to keep the blades facing into the wind. 

The windmill's conversion to a home began in 2005, as seen on You Live in What? in 2015” (below).

The windmill has been the subject of two blog posts, including this one from 2012, and this post about its construction by Joe Ule in 1950. (There’s also an additional post about Joe Ule's Storybook house nearby, from when it was for sale in 2016.)

A recent view of the windmill from Kolbe Road

Joseph Ule's Windmill & Storybook House

For the last two days, I'd been writing about the old house that overlooks the golf course, seen above in an aerial photo courtesy of Bing Maps. (By the way, since I posted that article, I'm thrilled to report that I'm getting a lot of help from some of the area's finest local history buffs in tracking down the history of the house and even – perhaps – the man who built it. I'll have much more to say in a future post.)

Anyway, if you look down in the lower right hand corner of the above photo, you can see the windmill and storybook house that Joseph Ule built on Kolbe Road.

You might remember that I wrote about the windmill before (back here). But what's this about a storybook house?

Well, below is a great article that tells the whole story of Joseph Ule and his creations. The article was sent to me by Rick Kurish and appeared in the Chronicle-Telegram on July 9, 1954.

This photo of the storybook house (below) accompanied the article.

Rick also generously shared his reminisces with me about his growing up in that area.

He wrote:

"I grew up on Kolbe Road, and my parents moved there when it was part of Amherst Township, and they were surrounded by farm fields. A riding stable grazed their horses in a pasture bordering my parents' property. The area is now all built up and a part of the city of Amherst. The pasture behind my parents place is now a woods that is part of Lorain County Beaver Creek Metroparks.

Anyway, I was familiar with the Joe Ule property, passing it several times a week. I believe Joe Ule moved to the area in the early to mid 1930s. 

You can see the township school house that Rick
mentioned in the 1896 map above near the Jaeger property

There was an abandoned brick Township Schoolhouse on the corner of Kolbe Road and Longbrook Road. The bricks from this building were used to build the rather fanciful house now on that corner. The house, is not nearly as old as it looks. Neither is the windmill, which from my almost daily observation was built between about 1954 and 1960. I think the house dates from about 1937.

The Ule property consisted of about 50 acres along Kolbe Road and Beaver Creek. Joe Ule was an amateur gentleman farmer, who preached organic gardening, before it was well known. In fact he planned to grind the grain from his own farm using the windmill. I can remember reading about him speaking before many agricultural groups.

Sometime in the early 1960s, he sold about 40 acres of his property to the city of Lorain. This became Kennedy Park. This still remains an undeveloped park along Beaver Creek, in the area of Jaeger road. Shortly after this he moved out of the area, to Florida, I believe. He died there in a boating accident in 1969 or 1970.

Hope I haven't bored you too much! Regards --- Rick"

Thanks, Rick! It's impossible to be bored when I receive such nice surprises in my email! Thanks for your research help. As always – I appreciate it!

Anyway, here's what the storybook house looks like today, courtesy of the Lorain County Auditor website (below).

I did shoot it myself this past weekend, but it was a cloudy day and my photo wasn't so hot (below).

That Windmill on Kolbe Road

The view from Kolbe Road this past weekend

It was surprising to see the windmill on Kolbe Road listed as a point of interest on that early 1960s Lorain brochure. The brochure referred to it as the "world's largest tower type windmill."

I'm assuming that it's the windmill in question because of where the arrow is pointing on the map.

For many years, whenever I was on Kolbe Road, I'd seen that structure peeking out of the trees and wondered about it. Years ago it was much more run-down, giving it a haunted look. Now it's looking pretty nice.

I couldn't find anything in the city directories to offer a definite history of how long it's been there. According to some online sources, an architect and bricklayer by the name of Joe Ule constructed it in the 1950s using plans that he brought from Europe.

There are a few stories on the internet about the windmill, mainly consisting of the current owner's attempt to restore it and get the permission from Lorain in 2007 to install the blades. 

Lastly, here's some interesting YouTube video from 2007 showing the owner talking about his renovation project.

I'm not sure what the status of the renovation is, but I hope he gets it done.