Archiefbewaarplaats, Grote Kerkstraat 29

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

ORIGINAL BUMA LIBRARY, NOW MUNICIPAL ARCHIVE, built in 1933-1934 in Delftse School style to the design of D.F. Wouda, engineer at the provincial water board.

Originally, one of the Van Eysinga houses of the Grote Kerkstraat stood on this site. When it came to stand empty after a respectable period of occupation by patrician families, it came into consideration for a new function. Lieuwe Annes Buma from Woudsend had studied the classics throughout his life in virtually complete isolation in Makkum, left a respectable library in his field of study upon his death in 1896, and bequeathed to the Province of Friesland a sum of one hundred thousand guilders on the condition that it would allocate annually a sum of three thousand guilders to the establishment and maintenance of 'a library for the Greek and Roman language and literature, which shall be established in Leeuwarden and shall bear the name of Buma Library'. The province accepted the bequest and soon purchased Buma's book collection as the nucleus for the library to be established. This was initially housed in the Palace of Justice and subsequently at the Provincial Library in the Chancellery. Around 1930, new accommodation had to be sought. The Eysinga house proved unsuitable upon investigation and it was decided to demolish this building to construct an entirely new library building with a substantial depot in the back garden on that site. Wouda was commissioned to make a design; he had proved himself a reliable and characterful designer with the architectural design of the steam pumping station at Lemmer. After the new construction of the Provincial Library at the Boterhoek, the Buma Library was able to move back in with this institution and in 1970, after expansion with a working storey on the depot section, the Municipal Archive was housed in the Buma building. In the middle of the 1980s, it was expanded again on the rear side.

Exterior and interior are in good condition. The front building is in virtually original condition; the depot section is surrounded by new construction.

Description

EXTERIOR: Composite building with front section on L-shaped floor plan and attached depot building on virtually rectangular floor plan on the rear side. The front section with its two wings on the street side forms a forecourt, paved with (Frisian) yellow clinker bricks and is separated from the street by an elegant art déco-style wrought-iron fence with double swing gate in the middle and otherwise on a mortared wall with sturdy square pilasters, all with granite coping plates with inscription 'Anno 1933'. Built in two storeys of reddish-brown, lightly mottled brick in English bond; on the street side a spout gable with slightly projecting shoulders on consoles and with granite coping plates. In both storeys cross windows with shutters - provided with large, wavy hinges - on the underside and fanlights with small glazing bars; entrance near the inner corner of the wings with granite step, entrance porch, door with vertical window strip in decorative stained glass and sidelights, projecting to a canopy granite calf and series of small fanlights. All woodwork clear-lacquered. Composite gabled roof with blue-glazed Dutch pan tiles; a small, simple cupola. Depot section: now partly built-in, rectangular box with flat roof and two storeys, constructed of yellow brick provided with light openings over two storeys, filled with six-light iron window with above wavy-shaped glass building blocks. In the early 1970s and mid-1980s, expansions took place on and adjacent to the depot.

INTERIOR: The original layout has been largely preserved with the exception of kitchen, strongbox and connecting corridor in the middle section which were sacrificed to the expansion of the reading room and staircase to the working storey on the depot. Hall, corridors, cloakroom and stairwell provided with dado panelling of green mottled tiles with black borders; otherwise on walls and ceilings flat plastered, some ceilings with double, flat border and arched transitions from walls to ceilings. The study room above has a pseudo (timber-beamed) beam ceiling on carved consoles in art déco forms. The depot space with intermediate floor of grilles still largely retains its original fixtures.

VALUATION

Library building, now municipal archive of general cultural-historical and architectural importance:

- because of its library history: the first building built as a library in Friesland;

- because of the stylistic purity in Delftse School style of the well-preserved exterior and largely well-preserved interior;

- because of the remarkable place the building occupies in the oeuvre of water board engineer Wouda.