Bestuursgebouw en onderdl, Steenschuur 4

English translation

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Description

Introduction

LODGE BUILDING 'La Vertu', dating from around 1872, with an older core, and interior by J. Neysingh from 1950. In 1872, the Leiden Freemasons purchased two seventeenth-century buildings, which until then housed the malt factory 'De Posthoorn' and the vinegar factory 'De Twee Sleutels'. The Freemasons transformed the two buildings into the lodge building 'La Vertu' by replacing the front facades with a new Eclectic facade. From the malthouse, vaults of the foundations remain. The lodge originally consisted of two parts: the meeting rooms and the caretaker's dwelling. Meanwhile, the two halves have been internally joined together.

The interior from 1872 was demolished by the occupier during the Second World War. In 1950, an initiation hall was designed on the first floor by the then municipal architect Jan Neysingh. The distinctive interior of this hall has been preserved intact.

The lodge building is an iconic component of the southern facade wall at the Steenschuur, within the protected townscape.

Description

The building is constructed over two storeys beneath two gabled roofs.

The front facade is built high, which conceals the gabled roofs from view. The band courses and arches of yellow brick in the red brick facade are partly applied in relief. The front facade has four window bays. Two brick pilasters mark the end of the facade, and between two other pilasters lies the central section beneath a pediment with plasterwork cassettes. The pilasters are constricted at the height of the band courses. The facade is built above a hard stone plinth, has a profiled drip moulding between the storeys and is completed by a plastered cornice with an overhanging wooden gutter line. Below the cornice a laid-on edge of ornamental brickwork.

On the ground floor of the central section two double panelled doors beneath segmental two-light fanlights and a brick tooth moulding. Between the doors a bronze plaque with the inscription 'Loge La Vertu 19 october 1757'. On either side of the doors a cross window with two-part segmental fanlight. On the upper floor four-light windows with double arches in shouldered segmental fanlights. All windows have plastered drip moulds. The lower edge of the pediment is interrupted by a round window containing the Freemasons' symbol.

The rear facade is plastered with false joints. Interior. From the interior, among other things, a beam layer and the wooden roof truss structures have been preserved.

Particularly remarkable is the initiation hall on the first floor. In this rectangular hall from the nineteen-fifties, among other elements: a tessellated linoleum floor, wall panelling and above it a plastered barrel vault without sharp edges. Double upholstered door beneath a balcony with wooden columns, along the wall iron columns, travertine 'altar', original chairs and large iron candelabra.

Valuation

The Freemasons' lodge building is of general interest owing to its cultural-historical value as one of the few surviving lodge buildings in the Netherlands.

The building is also of general interest owing to its architectural-historical value due to the Eclectic architectural style and the distinctive initiation hall.

From an urban planning perspective, the lodge is significant owing to its iconic location at the Steenschuur.