De Otter

De Otter is a paltrok mill in Amsterdam, Netherlands which has been restored to working order. As all Dutch paltrok mills it is a windpowered sawmill. The mill is listed as a Rijksmonument, number 1198.De Otter, probably earlier known as De Kleine Otter was built in or shortly after 1631. It is the only one left over from a group of sawmills built in the area between the Kostverlorenvaart canal and the Singelgracht. Gerrit van der Beyl bought the mill in 1817. The firm Van der Beyl expanded their property by acquiring several neighboring sawmills. City expansion started to threaten the mills by the end of the 19th century and during several decades the mills were one by one dismantled. De Otter was probably in production until the start of the 20th century. In 1925 the sails were removed after the wooden windshaft was torn but the rest of the mill remained standing. The last operational wind powered sawmill, De Eenhoorn , located north of De Otter, shut down in 1929 and was dismantled in 1931, leaving De Otter as the only remainder of this local industry. De Otter was placed on the list of monuments in 1977. The mill was restored to working order after a two-year restoration project started in 1994 after which it was regularly running. However the location of the mill for catching the wind was already difficult in the buildup area of Amsterdam and it got worse by the construction of large apartment buildings close to the windmill. Stichting Houtzaagmolen De Otter, as owner of the mill, therefore proposed to move the mill to Uitgeest. However the local government had to give permission to move a Rijksmonument and it turned out the local city council was strongly opposed to this idea. The fierce discussion became the subject of several court cases between 2006 and 2011. For the time being De Otter is still in its original location but not being operated.

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