Ely Park’s Windmill Pumphouse to Bondhouse to Starter’s Shelter in 1946

Ely Park’s Windmill Pumphouse to Bondhouse to Starter’s Shelter in 1946

Dated January 14th, 1946.

Courtesy of Joe Danvers; posted on the Historic Binghamton Facebook Group on 1-14-2021:

From today’s Press, 1946:

Caption of the picture reads”

“END WORLD WAR II CAREER—The Courthouse Square Bondhouse, a landmark in downtown Binghamton for nearly four years, was returned to Ely Park today by city workmen. The building used to be a pumphouse near a windmill at Ely Park. It will be used as a starter’s shelter near the first tee of the Municipal Golf Course. The structure was placed at the Court Street Location in 1942.”

Which raises the following questions:

1. Where was the windmill located at Ely Park? What years was it in operation?

2. How did the windmill pump water (presumably)? And for what use?

Perhaps it was originally located on the stone structure above in-ground water storage tanks with the name Ely Park above the doors of the foundation?

3. Is it safe to assume that it was moved four years earlier from Ely Park to Court Street? Or was it used somewhere else?

4. Year 1946; original ‘clubhouse’ is in the old Prytherch home just off the left side of what is now Hole No. 3 (was originally Hole No. 1 as a long par-3 which was lengthened to a short par-4 once the new clubhouse was built and the parking lot was no longer needed; note one can still feel and hear the cinders of the old parking lot). Where was the starter’s shelter located?