On Saturday Nebraska City celebrated Nebraska’s 23rd National Historic Landmark, the Kregel Windmill Factory. There are only 2,600 such significant landmark sites in the United States. The factory was constructed during the early 1900s with the company starting in 1897 by cousins Lewis and George Kregel.
The company manufactured the Eli windmills until 1941, and the family company installed wells and provided service repairs until closure in 1991. Many say that the museum looks as if all workers went to lunch and never came back to the factory.
The factory has since been preserved as efforts for preservation started shortly after the closure of business in 1991. After many contributions by multiple individuals like the original champion of the project, Nancy Hoch, current Museum Director, Isaiah Yott, and Berggren Architects, the factory was properly preserved into a museum for others to experience, making it the only original existing turn of the century windmill factory in the United States.
Saturday, April 26th was the Ceremony for the unveiling of the Kregel Windmill Factory Museums’ National Historic Landmark (NHL) plaque. With the museum being preserved to a specific point in history, 1939 (thanks to Dr. T. Lindsay Baker, PhD), it makes it a unique museum you won’t want to miss. As said by Baker, “The designation as national historic landmark clearly sets the factory apart from most historic industrial facilities because this one is so pristine to a specific period in the past”
