Custom Windmills
Leiter Windmill
(unknown location)
(unknown address)
Status
Destroyed
History
“It is not generally known that the most famous and useful Dutch
windmill in Illinois was built by Levi Z. Leiter, the former merchant
prince of Chicago. It was constructed…”
Only this snippet is available online. If you have a copy of
this issue and know the rest of this text, please contact me.
Interestingly, the tone of the article would imply that its author
recognizes that there are several other Dutch windmills in Illinois.
Oddly enough, the “most famous and useful” in Illinois is, apparently,
the one I know the least about!
I do, however, know plenty about Levi Z. Leiter. He was a
partner in the Field, Palmer, Leiter & Company dry-goods store, which
later became Marshall Field & Company. He had the department store
buildings constructed, the latest being the Leiter II building, designed
by the “father of the skyscraper” architect William LeBaron Jenney.
This building is still standing, and is now home to Macy’s department
store in downtown Chicago.
Sources
-“American Lumberman,” Part I, 1932.
