Ons Huisje
Have you ever wondered “What was my house, before it was my house?” I have not, but due to a serendipitous visit to the City of Amsterdam Online Archive (Gemeente Amsterdam Stadsarchief), I now know.
To be honest, I had very little expectations when I entered our address into the search bar. To me, our house is just an unassuming house in the city. It is not particularly old, nor does it have any discernible characteristics or notable history, as far as we knew. So, what would the city have on just a random house?
Ah, but this is The Netherlands. And the Dutch, they love administration. And you know what? I love that they love administrating, because not only did I find images of the house dating back to the early 1900s, and the names of the residents who lived
there
here, there was also this gem: an architectural drawing of the exterior façade of our house, dated September 1887.
Do you know what it feels like to come across the original, hand-drawn plans for the exterior of your house, from over 100 years ago? It feels surreal and amazing, like uncovering buried treasure with your name on it.
The house on the left is the proposed exterior for the building that was to replace the existing one (smaller building next to it). From what I see, the proposal in September 1887, was to change the existing 3-floor structure, to a 4-floor one. In doing so:
- An extra floor was added
- The stairs were changed from a spiral set to a straight one
- The doorway was widened
- The 1st and 2nd floors were heightened
I was so lightheaded from the discovery that I actually Googlemapped our house, just to compare that drawing with a photo of the current exterior.
It sure looks pretty similar to the original architectural drawing!
It would have been fantastic to see the house in its previous 3-floor form. Unfortunately, there were no documentation of it online, nor could I verify the year in which this current structure was actually built. No matter, it will be something fun to investigate when I pay an in-person visit to Stadsarchief Amsterdam in The New Normal TimesTM.
There were still plenty of documents and images on the online archive from which I could get a ton of information. Did you know, for instance, that the city of Amsterdam started a population registry in 1850? Would you like to know what that registry revealed about our little house? That it was, perhaps even in its previous 3-floor form, a multi-household dwelling up until the end of 1979.
I am still trying to decipher the relevant pages of population registry, but I am almost 100% sure of this, as there were multiple residents registered at the address with overlapping timelines . An example from the population registry shows a Hendrika Theodora Smit there here from December 1888 to December 1889. In that time, a family of 5 was shown to have moved in and out.
Annoyingly, there is a gap in the online availability of the population registry, from 1890 to the mid 1920s. No big deal, it will be something fun to investigate in person at Stadsarchief Amsterdam. Happily, the next available registries paint a much clearer picture, showing separate entries for each unit: Huis (ground floor), I-hoog (1st floor), and II-hoog (2nd floor).
Correspondingly, a 1925 photo shows two spionnetje boxes on the house, suggesting different occupancy on each floor. These boxes held a mirror pointed at the street-level front door, and were used to see who was ringing the doorbell. In fact, many residents still use this method today.
Another photo from 1974 clearly shows 3 doorbells by the front door. Interestingly, it also shows the house as the last one on the block, the previous building on the corner having been demolished in November 1945 to make way for an electric substation.
This little house, as 3 separate units! How did people live like that
there here? Cramped like sardines with shared facilities, I suppose.
The house was finally converted into a single household structure in 1979. This might also have been when the foundations were filled in with concrete, though oddly, it looks more upright back then than it does today.
Another fun fact: the hole in the wall just above the roof of the substation became a canal-facing window! It was removed in the early 2000s, when a new building was built over the substation, obscuring the view completely.
I do not remember how I first came across Stadsarchief Amsterdam. I have even forgotten the exhaustive amount of keywords I entered into the search bar, though I do remember wondering if I had overthought it.
What I do remember are feelings: the giddiness upon realising that the original plans exist, and were online; the disbelief at the number of people living in this small space at the same time; the surprise when a canal-side window appeared in the 1980s; the amazement of seeing its façade stay the same while the street and buildings around it changed.
This house was home to many before it became our home. This is obvious, and I knew it explicitly. But, seeing it in photos through time; having the names of the lives that were here; and simply knowing just how long it has been around, has added depth and poignancy to simply knowing it. Our Little House had a life before it was ours. In fact, it contained many more lives than I would have guessed.