Woonhuis, Oostergrachtswal 47

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

Front herenhuis circa 1880 possibly designed according to a design by Hendrik Kramer in Eclecticism, for several decades used institutionally and previously partly rebuilt and broken through with the properties 37 to 47 inclusive.

The Grachtswal, only separated into the Zuidergrachtswal and Oostergrachtswal after the opening of the Nieuwe Kanaal in 1895, has for centuries had a very diverse, largely continuous built environment, of mainly country houses of the wealthy. Map material shows an alternation at that wall of large plots with substantial buildings and extensive gardens. This can be read from the meticulously drawn city plan that Johann Hermann Knoop drew around 1760. One of the most remarkable buildings was the Marcelis Goverts Gasthuis established in 1658, consisting of a front house with gate and rooms around a courtyard behind. The gasthuis after the new construction at the Noordersingel in 1877 was sold with three adjacent houses. Parts of the gasthuis stood behind the built environment for a long time, of which no trace is now to be found. In the middle of the nineteenth century the housing density of the Grachtswal and surroundings had so increased that the city council just south of the gasthuis for the opening up of the area in 1849 brought a pontoon into the waterway, the first of the seven pontoons that would maintain a connection over the city moat. Moreover in the same year 1849 the drilling ground situated behind the built environment was moved to an area at the Kalverdijkje, because shooting exercises were becoming dangerous for the residents. The wooden quay facing of the wharf was in 1859 replaced by a stone quay wall and soon the quay was paved. In contrast to the Zuidergrachtswal which still has some older built environment, the Oostergrachtswal with built environment from the last quarter of the previous century seems to have developed only after the dismantling of the city. In this period, after the renewal of the quay, the built environment through renewal and new building indeed changed completely in age, but the new houses remained mostly herenhuis.

In the middle of the nineteenth century in the predecessor of this property lived Gerrit Martijn Baron du Tour van Bellinchave, councillor at the Hof with family and servants. In the 1870s Freule Christina du Tour van Bellinchave occupied the property with a 'lady companion' and other domestic staff. The Freule did so until 1899 and during that time the property must have been renewed. The Du Tour family had many possessions in Friesland including farms. In the workbooks of architect Hendrik Kramer from the beginning (not the beginning of his career) in 1881 various items of inspection, alterations and even the new construction of a farm in Genum appear, from which it can be concluded that he was family master builder and given the style, he may also have designed this herenhuis. From 1899 to 1907 the family with staff of mr. Jan Bieruma Oosting lived in the herenhuis and in 1908 Heinrich Gustav Wilhelm Sprenger came to live there with family and servants. Previously this very wealthy man had lived at number 45. Sprenger was a merchant, director of the Leeuwarder Courant and vice-consul of Spain. End of 1935 he departed to Funchal on Madeira and the herenhuis remained unoccupied for a time. In 1935 the office and warehouses of the provincial association Het Groene Kruis were established there with administrator T. de Groot as resident. The property was then rebuilt, particularly with a view to the public function, in particular the southern section with side entrance and hall. In 1971 the provincial planning service chose it as one of the row of properties for residency. The Thorbecke Academie of the Noordelijke Hogeschool and finally the Waterschap Friesland were the next users.

Description

EXTERIOR: Herenhuis originally on an L-shaped floor plan, a broad front house of five window bays wide and two storeys high under a hipped roof and an equally high rear wing on the north side. The broad property stands in an almost closed facade wall, but stands - presumably through demolition of the adjacent property, possibly a coach house - free on the south side, which for the function of Het Groene Kruis in the nineteen-thirties made an extension possible. Like number 41 it is made independent in the facade wall by an encasement of completely symmetrical vertical and horizontal moulding work of natural and artificial stone. The encasement is relativized by some decorative enrichments. After a natural stone plinth and breastwork and the profiled setting-out of the sill band follows rising brickwork of brown manganese stone. The breastwork of the storey is provided with a broad moulding of artificial stone with a profiled sill band. The facade is terminated by a corniced cornice of plaster with recessed panels, only in the central bay provided with acanthus scrollwork, a profile and dentil moulding and a profiled gutter moulding. Vertically the facade over both storeys on the corners and on either side of the entrance bay is articulated by pilasters of artificial stone, below rusticated (the two bottom blocks worked rustically) and above flat with recessed panels. The corner pilasters stand slightly proud of the corner, which strengthens the suggestion of breadth. Above the pilasters paired decorative corbels are placed against the cornice under the gutter moulding. In the facade stand large, arched closed windows in the front facade, below undivided, above T-windows, all topped by roof tiles. The two northern windows on the ground floor are provided on the sill with elegant cast-iron railings in which griffins are worked. In the central bay stands behind the arched closed, shallow, undecorated but on the lower side rusticated stuccoed portico with a hardstone step of two treads the profiled enclosed entrance part of a broad sculptured door. For the storey and above the entrance a balcony, resting on stout, richly formed neo-renaissance corbels and provided with an elegant cast-iron railing between pilasters. Behind the balcony stand opening doors with large glass panels and fanlight. Above the central section on the front roof slope a broad roof dormer with cross window, not originally finished flat. On the roof slopes blue glazed flat Frisian tiles with grooves. The side facades are finished flat. In the recessed section of the rear wing stand in a still visible section of side wall the triple round-arched windows for lighting the stairwell. In 1935 the property was extended on the south side for the function of Het Groene Kruis with various shaped elements laid in red brickwork and adjoined which conceal the greater part of the side facades from view. Behind this after 1971 a single-storey wing was built with walls of sheet pile planking.

INTERIOR: Behind the portico entrance is the no longer in use vestibule with white marble floor, a bordered wainscoting of plaster and new draught doors beyond a short corridor which ends in a very spacious hall. In the short corridor two glazed double doors to the side salons. The northern one still possesses the original window frame and largely a low wooden wainscoting. The other, small salon has only the window frame remaining. The large rear salon in the wing is the best preserved with two opening doors, a heavy, richly worked black marble fireplace and an elegant stucco ceiling in neo-classical forms. It is the only room in the dwelling where the stucco ceiling is visible, the remaining rooms have suspended ceilings. The great hall which on the south side in 1935 was altered, nevertheless breathes largely the atmosphere of the building period. The floor is covered with large, here and there damaged, white marble slabs. Between corridor and hall a gate-like finish. The staircase with below and above a richly sculptured newel and cast-iron balusters in the stair railing folds itself with an overlapping section along the southern wall of the hall. The staircase is lit by three tall round-arched windows with leaded glass in floral motif from the 1935 alteration period. Stoutly moulded stucco ceiling. The upper hall is encompassed with an oval, finely plastered mouldings and decorations encompassed fanlight with original glass. In the upper rooms among other things some simple stuccowork and window frames. Attics completely altered and fitted out for office functions.

EVALUATION

Herenhuis of general cultural-historical and architectural-historical importance

- because of especially the externally intact stylistic purity in the Eclectic style;

- because of the special, original interior components, in particular of entrance and hall and the rear salon;

- because of the striking place of the building in the history of the moat built environment;

- because of the urban planning location as one of the important elements in the almost closed moat built environment.