Woonhuis, Ruwenbergstraat 4

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

VILLA, built in 1904 in eclectic forms commissioned by doctor Karel Verzijl according to a design by his father-in-law, the Maastricht architect J. Kayser. The villa is situated on the northern approach road of the built-up area of Sint-Michielsgestel.

Description

Large basement villa of two storeys on an irregular floor plan with facades in fair-face brickwork under barrel tiles from the German firm A. Baehren and slate-covered, composite roofs. On the roofs are various ornamental wrought-iron lightning conductors and a weather vane in which 1904 is cut out. Gutter on volute-shaped consoles. The house consists of a number of interconnected building volumes, of which the centrally located entrance section forms the main mass. This has a slightly sloping tent roof with barrel-tile covered hipped sections and is flanked on the north side by an extension under a short gabled roof and on the south side by a long, transversely placed section under a separate gabled roof. The building has a five-sided bay window on the street side. On the south side of the transverse section is a tower-like extension under a steep hipped roof with maasdeck slate. On the south-eastern side of this is a small single-storey annex under a lean-to roof covered with barrel tiles. On the eastern side is a substantial single-storey conservatory on a square base under a flat roof. The northern side, which originally served as a doctor's practice, has a separate entrance with a wooden panelled door provided with eclectic ornamentation. This section has a gable facing north with overhang and ornamentation of timber framing. All window openings are spanned by a segmental arch with natural stone corner blocks and have decorative brickwork in the arch drums. The windows retain the original frames and T-windows and are provided with hardstone sub-sills. The entrance, reached via a hardstone step, has a double panelled door with cast-iron grilles and is sheltered by an overhanging canopy. To the left of the entrance is a hardstone memorial stone with the inscription "Mathilde 1904". The front facade is ornamented by courses of decorative brickwork in yellow facing brick. The transversely placed section under gabled roof has a striking, slightly projecting wooden gable with timber framing. On the bay window on the western side is a balcony with iron railing and French doors flanked by two narrow windows with fanlights.

The tower-like extension, which has three storeys, has on each storey two narrow coupled windows under segmental arches. The western facade of this section is also ornamented with courses of decorative brickwork. The tower is flanked by two tall built-up brick chimneys with ornamentation of yellow facing brick. On the street side is an iron railing detailed with, among other things, pointed arches, with two double carriage gates and cast-iron pedestals from the construction period.

Interior, much of the original ornamentation is preserved such as: wooden panelled doors, ornamented stucco ceilings and some marble and soapstone fireplaces and window sills. In some of the stucco ornaments on the ceilings, sparse influence of art nouveau can be observed in the styling of the floral ornamentation. The basement consists of several spaces separated from each other by walls, all spanned with barrel vaults resting on iron I-beams. The central corridor, which runs the full depth of the villa on the ground floor and provides access to all adjoining rooms, has a granito floor with mosaic borders. The walls have a stucco moulding with acanthus motif along the ceilings. The ceilings have floral stucco ornament. Rounded arches are placed centrally in the corridor.

On the left side are the large front room and a somewhat smaller back room. The ornamentation in the front room is still largely original. In various rooms lowered ceilings of plasterboard on wooden beams have been installed. This applies to: the back room, the rooms of the former doctor's practice and the kitchen and scullery. As a result, the fanlights of the windows are hidden from view. In the conservatory, low cabinets run along the plinth zone where the medicines of the practice were stored. The spaces in the small tower on the south side serve for sanitary facilities and storage.

Via a flight of steps with an ornamented wooden stair post and balusters one reaches the upper floor. The staircase is lit by a window placed in the southern roof slope. The ornamentation of the upper floor rooms is considerably more sober than on the ground floor, although here too some rooms are provided with an ornamented ceiling and natural stone fireplaces. The sanitary facilities have been renewed.

The wooden collar-tie roof truss of the building is unboarded.

Valuation

The villa is of general importance. The villa has cultural-historical value as a special expression of socio-economic development whereby the wealthy middle class and administrative elite established themselves in the immediate vicinity of 's-Hertogenbosch on the approach roads of the smaller, more rural places around it and had a country house built there.

The building is of architectural-historical importance because of the high quality of the construction and the quality of the applied historicising style elements. Furthermore, the complex has ensemble value because of the special coherence between the constituent components and the historical-spatial relationship with the roads and green spaces. It is also important because of the rarity of such well-preserved villa complexes.