Klein Offem

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

Introduction

The COUNTRY HOUSE 'Klein Offem' dates in origin from the eighteenth century but acquired its present appearance during alterations in the nineteenth century. The monumental plastered south façade in the style of Romantic Neoclassicism was created between 1856 and 1861. The interior is largely preserved in plan and detail in the state of around 1860. In 1836 Wigbold Albert Willem van der Does, Count of Limburg Stirum purchased the house 'Quartelkooi' on the Achterweg (later: Offemweg) with garden and garden land from master shoemaker Ary van Rhijn. According to the cadastral map of 1818 the house had a narrow elongated irregular plan. After the purchase the front section of the house was enlarged and provided with new windows and doors and became, as part of the Offem estate, known as Klein Offem. In 1855 the estate, including Klein Offem, passed into the hands of Frederik Albert Govert, Count of Limburg Stirum.

Between 1856 and 1861 a new country house with coach house and various service dwellings were built on Offem to the design of architect G. Brouwer from The Hague. Because Klein Offem was altered in the same period, it is likely that architect G. Brouwer also provided the design for this. During this alteration(s) the front house on the Offemweg was largely maintained externally in the state of 1836. In the construction of the back house existing building elements were probably incorporated. The way in which the different building sections connect to each other and the difference in age of the masonry suggest different building periods. The house Klein Offem is separated from the Offem estate by the Gooweg. The front house is situated on the Offemweg, the later extension is located behind it, hidden behind a high garden wall, which was recently erected. The north façade of the house adjoins the shooting range of the St. Jorisgilde.

Description

The country house Klein Offem, created in different phases, has an elongated plan and is composed of three main volumes. On the Offemweg lies the blocky 'front house' of one storey under a truncated hipped roof with muted Dutch tiles. The elongated 'back house' consists of a two-storey wing with corner pavilions under a composite hipped-gabled roof with glazed Dutch tiles and a one-storey wing under gently sloping gabled roof. The monumental plastered south façade with the regular series of sixteen double doors connects the three different building sections into a unity. The west and east façades of the property are also plastered and limewashed. The north façade, which is recessed and projected by various extensions, is largely constructed in red brick, the masonry dates from different periods. Behind the front house the façade recedes in such a way that a small courtyard is formed, closed off by simple wooden sheds.

In the front façade of the front house (west) a central wooden panel door under two-pane fanlight, flanked by six-pane sash windows with shutters. The red painted door and shutters are provided with white hour-glasses. In the roof hipped section two roof dormers with four-pane windows under pitched caps. The entire plastered south façade is articulated on the ground floor by sixteen tall double four-pane Empire doors with blinds. The façade of the two-storey building volume with the three-sided corner pavilions is horizontally articulated by a natural stone plinth, a simple drip moulding and a cordon line with rectangular spare fields.

Between the corner pavilions a veranda with patterned tile flooring under an awning on richly decorated fluted cast-iron columns. In front of the one-storey wing on the right side a second veranda with clinker paving under an awning on a slender cast-iron structure with trellises and ornate cast-iron ornaments. The six-pane sash windows on the upper floor are also provided with blinds.

In the plastered east façade two six-pane windows and in the apex of the gable a round ventilation opening with cast-iron grille. Centrally in the north façade of the front house only a small basement window and above it a two-pane window of the attic room. The back façade of the front house (east) adjoins the courtyard. On the ground floor in this façade a door with nine-pane side-light, in the plastered attic storey two six-pane sash windows. A flat roofed stairwell with two six-pane windows on the upper floor connects the front house with the back house. Against the tall plastered north façade of this wing a slightly lower building section under gently sloping half-hipped roof. In the west façade of this extension, which adjoins the courtyard, on the ground floor a door and six-pane window, on the upper floor also six-pane windows. In the north façade of the one-storey wing under gently sloping gabled roof four six-pane sash windows.

Interior

Internally a long corridor from the door in the front façade on the Offemweg to the east façade connects the three building volumes with each other. The different rooms are situated on either side of this central axis. On the south side lie the principal spaces, such as the hall with stairwell, the dining room, and various reception rooms. The bedrooms are located mainly on the north side and on the upper floor. In the rooms nineteenth-century interior elements such as marble mantelpieces, fireplaces with smoke hoods on decorative wooden corbels and pilasters, wooden panel doors and original wooden floors are largely preserved.

Valuation

The country house is of general cultural-historical importance as an original component of the Offem estate.

The country house Klein Offem, eighteenth-century in its core but mainly nineteenth-century, is of general importance due to cultural-historical value as an intact and representative example of a country house in the style of Romantic Neoclassicism with elegant detailing, from the mid-nineteenth century. The house is particularly intact in its main form, use of materials and detailing. Internally the plan is almost entirely preserved as well as several interior elements in a style befitting the house. Despite modernization of some components the nineteenth-century atmosphere of the interior has been preserved.