The sails of the formerly dilapidated Murphy windmill near the edge of Ocean Beach will be turning when the Dutch kick up their wooden heels at the Queen's Day festival in Golden Gate Park on Saturday.

The windmill, which stands in the southwestern corner of the park and has been in the process of being refurbished since 2002, is in its final phases of restoration. It will spin with its older compatriot to the north, the Dutch windmill, which has already been restored to its original appearance.

Although the Murphy windmill has been able turn its sails for six months, the Dutch festivities offer an appropriate public celebration for the 107-year-old landmark. After Saturday's event, the sails will turn just for maintenance purposes until the restoration is complete.

"The renovation part was going parallel with preparations for the Queen's Day festival," said Nathalie D'Adelhart Toorop, assistant to the Netherlands Consulate General and festival coordinator. "It's so nice ... we could open this to the public this day to show the public how far the renovation has come."

The six-story windmill was named after local banker Samuel G. Murphy who contributed $20,000 to build it. It was modeled after the windmills of Holland but has a few features that make it unique. It's much larger - considered the tallest of its kind with the longest sails in existence - and has steel components and a fantail not found on other windmills.

Plans to renovate the windmill started taking hold in the 1990s but didn't fully get under way until 2002. The restoration has been pushed by a community group called the Campaign to Save the Golden Gate Park Windmills, which helped raise funds for the construction.

"We had a whole bunch of hurdles that are too detailed and ugly to discuss. There were a lot of funding issues," said Dan Mauer, project manager for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department.

The roughly $4 million that has been spent to restore the windmill has been cobbled together from private donations, state grants and some city funds, he said.

The Murphy windmill, which is being renovated by fourth-generation Dutch millwright Lucas Verbij, was capped with a new 68-ton dome last fall.

The concrete base and about a third of the materials are all that has survived of the original structure. "When we took the building apart, we labeled every piece of timber and wood," Mauer said. "All the pieces that could be refurbished were put back in."

In the next phase, a pumping mechanism will be installed so that the windmill can circulate water. Its original function of pumping water throughout the park was long ago replaced by an irrigation system. Queen's Day, a national celebration in the Netherlands of the country's queen, is being held for the second time in San Francisco and the first time in Golden Gate Park. Last year's event was held in Union Square.

The new venue will allow for more activities and food: Dutch treats include herring, cheese and caramel cookies called stroopwafel. And there will be the refurbished windmill.

"We thought it would be great to have a little piece of Holland for the day in Golden Gate Park and share that with everyone who's interested," the Netherlands Consulate's D'Adelhart Toorop said.