Woonhuis, Raadhuisstraat 18

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.

The Raadhuisstraat leading to the town hall of Willemstad contains a number of DYKE DWELLINGS from circa 1900. They are located on the south side of the dike, number 22 is a corner building. They belong to the type of 'deep' houses with the ridge direction perpendicular to the dike and belong stylistically to Eclecticism. The buildings adjoin each other and have a small rear garden. Striking is the use of calcium silicate brick with red mortar in the front facades. Calcium silicate brick was first used in Germany and from 1898 in the Netherlands, especially in facade brickwork. Decorative elements are borrowed from Art Nouveau. In the course of time alterations have been made. The rear facades of nos. 20 and 22 have been cemented and no. 18 received a wooden cladding and a wide balcony on wooden posts on the upper floor. No. 20 has retained the most original windows. At the front all houses have had their balconies, in style, renewed and double glazing has also been occasionally applied. All windows on the ground floor have roller shutters. Internally adaptation to modern lifestyle took place: in no. 22 an iron spiral staircase replaces the wooden staircase; on the main living floor of nos. 18 and 22 the partition walls, of no. 20 the sliding doors have been removed. The layout of building no. 20 and the basement of no. 18 have been preserved intact and serve in the description of the interior as a guide.

Description.

The dwellings constructed on a rectangular ground plan are single-storey on the street side, and two-storey at the foot of the dike with an attic storey under a gabled roof covered with dark grey old-Dutch tiles. The side gable of the corner building in cross-bond Ijssel stone. At the roof edge lies a list gutter on the wall and a chimney. The front facades are constructed in white calcium silicate brick with red mortar above a cemented base with lily and rose anchors. The three parallel gabled roofs are closed off at the street by spout gables with stepped coping, which differ only in detail from each other. Frontally in front of the houses runs a pavement with the original paving of yellow-black hexagonal tiles. The buildings have identical three-bay front facades with two tall T-windows with undivided lights and front doors with coloured geometric lights (nos. 20, 22). To the left of the front door of number 18 lies a second door to the former 'back way', which now for half its length is the entrance to no. 18. This paved and brick vaulted small passage descends in the middle eight steps and has at the rear a bricked gateway, closed with a door. Before the entrances lies a sandstone step on ditto blocks, below which a basement window. On the upper floor in an arch field French doors with side windows and a balcony with iron balusters. In the gable ends an oculus with iron tilt window and ornamental anchors. In the rear facades lie original T-windows with undivided lights, new single and composite windows and on no. 18 a sash door unit on the upper floor and two new windows on the attic. The facades have many decorative elements: red diamond heads at the height of the alternating sills and as keystones above the front doors and windows; Art Nouveau decoration in the frieze between the two residential storeys; floral sandstone reliefs on the shoulder pieces and corner pieces in the gable facades with an obelisk on top; ornamental anchors in Art Nouveau style; coloured geometric tile infills in the arch fields of the balcony frames, while below these windows runs a tile frieze of stylized white rosettes against red background; floral decoration in the vertical tile edge between the facades. Internally the buildings consist of basement, ground floor, attic storey and loft. In the stairwell two fixed staircases with iron rod as railing connect the residential floors.

To the low loft a hatch. In the basement at the rear lies the kitchen with small wooden cooking range clad with 'whites'. In this space (at nos. 18 and 20) a panel door gives access to a space situated two/three steps higher with barred window on the street side. In this space lies a brick and cemented rainwater reservoir with the tap in the kitchen. Next to it and accessible from the passage lies at the height of the front door likewise two/three steps higher a storage room with ditto window. The passages of nos. 18 and 20 are covered with the same hexagonal tiles as the pavement in front of the house. At no. 22 there lies at the front a room and at the rear a modern kitchen. On the main residential floor there lies in all buildings a continuous living space with at nos. 18 and 20 an open kitchen at the rear. On the attic floor there lies at the front the balcony room, which at no. 18 extends under the roof slope above the gateway.

Valuation.

The buildings are of general interest. They possess architectural-historical value on account of their high aesthetic qualities and the special use of materials, namely calcium silicate brick, a material new at the time of construction that ultimately was little used in this form. The three buildings together form a valuable ensemble within the area visually and stylistically dominated and protected by the Town Hall. The group is intact in its main form and parts of the interior, with no. 20 as an internally nearly intact object possessing rarity value. The group is of importance on account of architectural-historical and material-science rarity.