A Visit to the Higginson Tower

On Saturday, after I went to the Arbor Gallery in Vankleek Hill (see yesterday's post), I was walking around the grounds and decided to visit the Higginson Tower, which is close to the gallery. The tower was originally built in 1832 as a wind-powered gristmill and was restored in 2006-2007.

Walking around the tower, I saw that the door was open so I went in. There was a young woman there welcoming visitors (and taking the donations, natch!).

Then I began to climb.................

.......and climb.................

The stairs and landings were all made of wood. I went around and around and up and up. Eventually the stone walls gave way to wooden walls as I got closer to the top.

Finally, I reached the top of the tower. 

The interior was quite pretty and there were lots of windows to look out. 

This is the view looking out one of the windows toward the northeast (I think). You can see the Arbor Gallery down below to the left. 

And this is the view out another window looking toward the southwest. I like the funky tower on the church next door. 

I started to walk back down again. I hadn't noticed these windows on the way up, but they caught my eye on my way down. The light coming in was beautiful and you can see how thick the stone walls are. 

At the very bottom of the stairs, the grist mill was displayed on the floor in the very centre of the tower. I wouldn't want to have to lift that up! Probably weighs a ton. 

I chatted with the nice young woman greeting visitors at the base of the tower. She told me that the tower is usually not open in November (the season is usually from May to October) but there were a lot of events going on this particular Saturday in the town and so they opened specially to accommodate visitors. I felt lucky that I was able to see the tower, just by chance. And I was worried about this young woman because she looked cold. (She assured me she was okay). 

There were other visitors in the tower while I was there, including this very young man, who made it all the way to the top on his own two legs and back down again. Plucky kid!