M. Verdoold Cz.

English translation

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Description

Introduction

The PUMPHOUSE "M. Verdoold Cz." was established in 1866 and is named after the then chairman of the Stolwijk polder. The pumphouse, designed in a simple Waterstate style, was built on the Stolwijkse boezem near Gouderak, close to the Grote or Beneden Stolwijkse lock, which was used for water discharge. At that time the pumphouse still had a scoop wheel, driven by a steam engine with two boilers. The capacity proved insufficient over time, so in 1879 it was decided to replace the existing pumping equipment in the polder with one powerful steam pumphouse that would pump all polders (Stolwijk, het Beijerse, den Agterbroek and Veerstalblok) directly into the IJssel at Gouderak. The old pumphouse in Gouderak was modernized for this purpose and equipped with two centrifugal pumps, each coupled to a steam engine. The pumps were housed in a new machine room built behind the old building and discharged into a pump sump which was built between the machine buildings and the inner front of the water discharge lock. After forty years of service, in 1919 it was decided to convert the pumphouse into a motor pumphouse for which two two-cylinder Crossley suction gas engines were installed, each coupled to a centrifugal pump.

A pump sump is located both in front (west) and behind the building. On the polder side (east) of the pumphouse the sump leads into a water discharge lock which, however, has become of secondary importance due to modernizations. The semi-elliptical masonry pump sump in front of the building is surrounded by an iron fence with balusters. The masonry sump at the rear has a simple balustrade. The former wooden coal shed that stands to the left in front of the pumphouse (northwest) serves a typologically image-supporting function.

N.B. In 1950 the suction gas engines were replaced by electric motors.

Description

The pumphouse consists of two coupled building volumes with a lower section placed behind. Both front sections are constructed in grey brick under saddle roofs partly covered with red and partly with Flemish bond pantiles, the ridge direction of which stands almost at right angles to the dike. The remaining facades are built in IJssel stone. The rear building section has three hipped roofs with Flemish bond pantiles. The two spout gables at the front (west = dike side) are closed off by corner pilasters with a rendered drip moulding and are decorated along the roof edge with a climbing crenellated frieze, closed off by moulded coping plates. The symmetrically arranged facades have at both ends a double door with ornamental grilles and on either side of the central axis a single panel door, each within masonry pilasters carrying the white rendered lintel, above which the semicircular fanlight is placed. The substantial semicircular fanlights have a star-shaped cast-iron glazing bars arrangement, framed by a rendered moulding. The double doors have a geometric glazing bars arrangement. In the gable top are cartouches inscribed with the text "M. Verdoold" and "Anno 1880". Above these are circular windows with a cross-shaped cast-iron glazing bars arrangement.

Both side facades are decorated along the roof edge with a crenellated frieze. The front section has in both side facades three rectangular two-light windows, provided with a natural stone water table and surrounded on three sides by a band course with natural stone blocks. In the rear, lower section three rectangular windows are placed on this facade side. In the left side facade there is a door under a fanlight. The rear facade has below the roof edge a decoration with an executed crenellated frieze and features three multi-pane semicircular arch windows and a simple door under a fanlight. This rear section in which the machine room is housed is partly built over the pump sump and has two semicircular openings at the bottom. Above this, in line with the rendered plint, a rendered band is applied, which runs along the facade as a plint. The semi-elliptical masonry pump sump in front of the building is surrounded by an iron fence with balusters.

Internally the building has retained its original layout. The machine room in the rear part of the building, furnished with tiled walls decorated with a green band. The front part of the pumphouse is used as storage space.

Valuation

The pumphouse "M. Verdoold Cz." is of general interest because of its cultural- and architectural-historical value through the waterstate significance of the pumphouse in the Stolwijk polder and as an intact example of a pumphouse in Waterstate style from the end of the previous century. Also of importance because of the original state in which the main form, use of materials and detailing of both interior and exterior are preserved of the pump building and associated sumps, including the overall layout. The pumphouse forms a functional and situational unity with the boezem located behind it, is of urban planning importance as a marking of a centuries-old discharge point and forms part of the historical structure. The pumphouse is also visually dominant in the landscape.