Postkantoor, Molenstraat 10

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.

Within the fortress Woudrichem, on the north side of the Molenstraat, lies the former POST OFFICE from 1905. Number 10 is the entrance to the residential house, number 12 to the post office. Until 1995 the building was used as a post office with the post office on the ground floor and the residence of the postmaster on the upper floor. The building belongs stylistically to Neo-Renaissance. The detached building has iron fence enclosures on either side on a salient. In front of the entrance lies a brick slope of three steps with iron railings with balusters with floral ornament.

Description.

The two-storey building with attic storey on an almost square floor plan has a hipped roof with a stepped gable on the front facade that projects through the front roof slope as a saddle roof to ridge height. The roof is covered with red improved Dutch tiles. Where the hip rafter meets the ridge lie pirons. On the rear roof slope lies a chimney; on the roof edge of the western roof slope lie two narrow tall chimney shafts anchored in the roof with iron rods. On the roof edge lie cornice gutters on cut consoles all around. In the front and rear facades lie dormers with stepped gables of two steps beneath saddle roofs with shingled roof tiles perpendicular to the roof slope and passing through the cornice. Rectangular rainwater outlets on all facades. The building is constructed in English bond with reddish-brown bricks with scraped joints and has a brick plint with roller course. The asymmetrical front facade is four window bays wide and has on the right side across the width of two window bays a termination with a six-step high stepped gable with roundel window, makelaar and piron. The equally two-bay-wide left facade field is ended by a cornice gutter that is interrupted by a dormer with twice-stepped gable with makelaar, oculus and cross window. The stepped gables are articulated by string courses, the facade field by rounded-off recesses in which cross windows are placed with nine-part lights with ochre-coloured cathedral glass. On the ground floor lie two composite window frames with respectively five and two windows with like lights and both entrances beneath timber-clad iron lintels with hammered nails. Both panelled doors have small square panes and leaded lights with yellow-red edges. The elliptical arch fields above the cross windows have a filling with brick mosaic. Natural stone is used in the sills of the windows, reveals, starter pieces of the frames and in the closings of all facade openings. Both side facades have flat walls with narrow elliptical arch openings in which windows with identical lights, arch filling and closing as in the front facade. In the eastern facade lies on the corner with the rear facade the stairwell beneath a flat roof. It projects through the roof slope and has ascending windows with yellow-red leaded light filling. On the rear lies on the corner a one-storey extension beneath a flat roof and an extension with overlying balcony with iron railings and stairs. On the upper floor two composite frames identical in closing to the front facade with doors and windows with lights with small glazing bars and coloured cathedral glass. This type of light is also found above some windows on the ground floor and in the cross window of the dormer. All wall openings in the rear facade are closed straight with stone bands, occasionally with roller course; the windows have brick sills. Internally the building has retained the characteristic layout with separate entrances for post office and postmaster's residence. After the door of the residential house lies the corridor to the vestibule with counter openings and the stairwell with flat carved stiles. In this part lie the original black and white tiled floor and tiled skirting with red, blue and green pomegranate motif on white field. This motif is repeated in the skirting of the public corridor and the telephone box. Further noteworthy from the interior are the panelled doors and mouldings, the telephone box, as well as a counter light with double sixteen-pane lights in the wall between the former post office and the rear of the building.

Valuation.

The building is of general significance. It has cultural-historical value as an example of the development of the postal service and because of the typology of the village post office. It is of architectural-historical importance because of the aesthetic quality of the design, the detailing and the coherence between the intact main form and interior elements from the construction period. It has ensemble value as a characteristic component of the built environment on the Molenstraat. Moreover, the building fits stylistically within the historical character of Woudrichem, the neo-renaissance design connects with the surroundings. The building has been preserved intact in its main form and parts of the interior and thus possesses rarity value.