Het springend hert

English translation

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Description

Introduction

Business premises, built in 1901 as a paper wholesaler 't Springend Hert according to a design by architect Zytze Siewert Feddema in a decorative Neo-Dutch Renaissance with influences from the Renewal style.

Already in the nineteenth century a business building of paper wholesaler Into Nauta Andreae stood on this site. In 1859 Andreae had purchased Het Springend Hert, the only paper mill in Friesland, in Idsegahuizum near Makkum, and thus became a manufacturer of coarse, brown packing paper made from rags. At a time when competition from the well-functioning new cardboard factory in Leeuwarden (the first in the Netherlands) was being felt, Andreae had his wholesale business with storage on the Tuinen renovated with a representative building: a fine gesture from a business in a downward spiral. Soon production at the mill ceased. The business was taken over in 1909 by paper wholesaler Sytse Vermeulen who had established a new business in Renewal style in 1906 at Emmakade 72-74 south side. The building lost its original function years ago, but still has a business function.

Architect Feddema designed a representative little building at the corner of one of the many alleys of the Tuinen that, by its modest size and decorative approach, provides an accent in the higher facade wall. Zytze Siewert Feddema was born as the son of a carpenter in Leeuwarden in 1863. After, like his younger brother Hero, learning the basics of the building trade from his father, he went to Amsterdam at the age of 16 to further his skills. Brother Hero remained in Leeuwarden. Zytze even soon travelled on to Antwerp and returned to his birthplace in 1883. Possibly this partly foreign education ensured that this Feddema was one of the most original designers of his time in Leeuwarden with surprisingly diverse approaches and styles. He did not shy away from neo-styles—the lavish neo-renaissance double kiosk on Koningsstraat and Voorstreek from 1897 is an example of that—but renewal with some Jugendstil details can also be found in his oeuvre, of which the warehouse at Romkeslaan 1 is characteristic. In any case, Feddema proved himself to be an architect with much attention to graceful details. Even for commissions for purely business functions, he clearly considered the representative value of a graceful form so important that he proposed it and was permitted to apply it on behalf of his client.

Description

EXTERIOR: Business premises on an almost rectangular footprint of one full storey and a high, truncated hipped roof with lead covering, also on the hip ends. The masonry of the front and side facade on the alley side is built of dark red wire-cut brick. Especially the front facade is furnished with various decorations. The front facade consists of a broad section with gable top and a narrow, slightly recessed section at the back with roof hip. At the bottom a sturdy sandstone plinth; at the business door rounded corner stones of the same material. The double business door has in the recessed fields herringbone-laid pearl boarding and hinges in the whiplash style of Art Nouveau. The three-part fanlight has lattices in the form of flowers of wrought iron. The door opening is relieved by an iron I-beam with rosettes. Likewise the large three-light window and the door of the office have such relieving beams. The panel door of the office has glass panes with gracefully wrought iron grilles and the two-part fanlight has tracery in the same manner. The frame of the large three-light window with fanlights is multiply profiled; the sandstone underwill is so dressed that the stiles of the frame rest on nipple-shaped thickenings. The substantial cross windows in the side facade on the alley display similar care. On the transition from ground floor to roof storey there is a substantial profiled stringcourse across the full width of the facade. Above the stringcourse, on the office section a broad tile panel once hung, possibly with the business name. The now plastered section is flanked by consoles with Flemish roots. With a series of short intermediate consoles they support a round-arched frieze. It is broken by a large window, again with an iron lintel, in the truncated stepped gable. On either side of this window lie niches between sandstone segmental arches and sills, niches with tile panels which in yellow scrollwork on a blue ground let the founding date of the building be read: Anno 1901. The stepped gable with coping stones is truncated at the level of the eave line. There stands for crowning a decorative wrought iron fence in round-arched forms with on the left side a weathervane in the form of a leaping stag.

INTERIOR: The interior is simple, but partly in original condition. The office at the front exists as a space, including the door with service windows for payments. Behind this office a second storage room was later partitioned off. In the business corridor next to the office rails for the lorry still lie. The business room is otherwise unfitted, but in original condition. Behind the storage the stairs against the rear facade are located. The structure of the truncated hipped roof is original; at the front an original space has been partitioned off.

VALUATION

Business premises of general historical, architectural-historical and urban-planning significance by virtue of

- the well-preserved and decorative, especially external Neo-Dutch Renaissance with influences from the Renewal style as a representation of business pride and the still-legible industrial function;

- the particular place which this building occupies in the oeuvre of the idiosyncratic architect S.Z. Feddema;

- The particular place which the building claims for itself as a small, yet highly decorated element in the nearly closed facade wall of the Tuinen.