Buitenplaats Eikenrode

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

MAIN BUILDING (Huis Eikenrode).

Main building situated on a rectangular ground plan with two storeys under a flat roof with a strikingly robust cornice. The main building is constructed in neo-classical style. The front façade facing west has five window bays with a central risalit of three bays, articulated and bounded by four ashlar pilasters of the colossal order and provided with basement and capital.

Horizontally the façade is articulated by an ashlar string course directly below the windows on the upper storey. In front of the risalit a stone plinth with three steps in the middle. Next to the plinth are two pedestals on which (now missing) stone dogs were placed. At the foot of the façade an ashlar plinth which surrounds the building. The frames of all windows and of the centrally located entrance door are moulded; above the windows in the risalit on the ground floor are classical volute motifs in wood, and cornices with frieze and cornice above the remaining windows on the ground floor. The entrance has a glass door with six-panel division, of which the lower two rectangles are closed. On either side extending to the plinth, respectively the plinth, continuous façade openings with casement windows with fanlight. The windows on the upper storey have casement windows with six-pane glazing below the transom and an undivided fanlight above.

The imposing cornice is corniced above the risalit, has a flat architrave and frieze, above which the projecting moulded cornice.

The right façade likewise has five window bays, the continuous ashlar horizontal string course, and a double hinged glass door with moulded frame and cornice. The windows and door have a division identical to that of the front façade. Three small attic lights are inserted in the frieze.

In the rear façade bottom right is a record of the foundation stone laying on 11 March 1845 by Mrs J.C.S. Hacke-Elias, the wife of the patron. The rear façade has in the middle over both storeys a three-sided projection with on the ground floor bent brick pilasters (with basement and capital) and above the three double glass doors there infill panels with consoles; the remaining rectangular façade openings on the ground floor extend to the foot of the façade; the windows on the upper storey are rectangular in the projection, the others are arched; the windows on the ground floor are provided with moulded frames which have been recast; on the upper storey only the two rightmost windows, which are in the projection, and the first window following them have full moulded strings, the remaining three windows have only a moulded arch; the division of the openings on the ground floor is six-pane, on the upper storey the division is likewise six-pane, but with two-part fanlight, except the windows in the projection which are eight-pane. In the frieze three attic lights. The façade is horizontally articulated by three string courses, one above the pilasters of the projection, one below the windows on the upper storey, one at the level of the arch springing of the arched windows.

The left façade has two doors, one with cornice on the ground floor, and one window on the upper storey. On the frieze a bell and two attic lights. Here also the surrounding ashlar string course.

In the interior some intact stucco work is present on the ceilings. In some places strikingly moulded heavy consoles support a beam end. The passages on the ground floor are provided with white marble floor tiles. All doors are panel doors. The chimney surrounds are particularly numerous and mostly provided with woodwork panelling, which matches the rest of the decoration of the room.

In the garden room on the ground floor is a mid-18th century stone chimney with plain oak bosom, in which presumably formerly a mirror or painting. In this room red wall covering (textile), a stuccoed cove cornice with gold rubbed back above a plain oak cornice, with gold heightened rosette in the centre of the ceiling, double plain oak doors with overdoor and moulded strings. Low wainscoting with moulded, partly gold heightened, woodwork. On the ground floor furthermore on the right a chimney surround on robust consoles of multicoloured marble, a stone chimney surround with white marble consoles, above which fluted pilasters with basement and architrave, and yet another stone chimney surround with opposite white marble consoles. On the upper storey by the stair a wall bookcase with sliding glass doors, a writing desk with writing surface on white consoles (fitted in the window frame) and a wainscoting of marble plates with on either side two stuccoed pilasters with basement, capital and architrave. Also a black stone chimney surround with stuccoed pilasters with recessed fields, worked basements and capitals, egg and dart mouldings, frieze and string course.

According to C. Moes, "Architecture as ornament of nature, the architectural drawings from the archive of J.D. Zocher jr. (1791-1870) and L.P. Zocher (1820-1915)", NAI Rotterdam 1991, p. 184 the country house and the design of the landscape park belong to the executed works of J.D. Zocher; she refers to H.W.M. van der Wyck, De Nederlandse Buitenplaats, Aspecten van ontwikkeling, bescherming en herstel, Alphen a/d Rijn 1983, p. 311, where both the house and the landscape park are attributed to J.D. Zocher.

Architecturally important neo-classical main building of which both the exterior and the interior are in virtually authentic condition.