City Quest

Students
De Wadden

The County Hall
Pavilion "Welgelegen" (1789)

Introduction.

When Haarlem celebrated its 750 years birthday, the mother of Chris bought the book "Haarlem, bestaat niet". Between all the stories Chris found a drawing of the County hall. We passed this building many times, but we did not know much about it. But you can see it is a very special building. So it seemed to us this building is a good topic for a report.

The history of the County Hall

Pavilion Welgelegen was built for the Amsterdam banker Henry Hope. He was born in America and he was raised in England. He already bought several pieces of ground. He wanted to build a kind of palace there. The nature was beautiful and the river Spaarne was nearby.
The citizens of Haarlem found it strange. Hope was a foreigner, he was rich. The building looked like a palace, but he did not stay much on his property. And the citizens of Haarlem were not used to the fact that someone built his own museum.
But the members of the city board were pleased with this new building.. Haarlem could earn more money with it. Many important foreign guests came to Haarlem. Haarlem became more important by this building.
The building itself is very special. It was so special that people started to write about it in their journey diaries. The building was designed by Henry Hope himself, together wih Triquetti and Dubois. In these days people were very interested in the history of the old Greek and Roman. And the builders were inspired by this interest. The County Hall is a good example of what we call the New Classic Design.
Another reason why this building is so special is because the fact that many famous people stayed in it. Like the Tsar of Russia (1814), the Emperor of France (1811), Thomas Jefferson (1788), Governor Willem V (1788), the Shah of Persia (around 1890) and Lodewijk Napoleon (1808).

An overview of the history of the County Hall

1785: They start with building the palace.
1789: They finished the building. Hope already got permission to plant new trees in the Haarlemmerhout, in front of the building, to restyle the park. Prince Willem V pays a visit to the building.
1794: Henry Hope escapes to England when France conquered Holland. For many years the building is empty.
1807: Hope sells the building to John Williams Hope, the husband of his niece.
1811: Hope died in London.
1808: At 21 October J.W.Hope hands over the pavilion Welgelegen to King Lodewijk Napoleon. Lodewijk named the building from now on Pavilion Welgelegen . Lodewijk Napoleon likes the building very much and he puts a lot of energy in restyling the internal part.
1810: Lodewijk Napoleon has to leave Holland permanently.
1811: Napoleon declared that the pavilion is a part of the French Government.
1813 The Pavilion is part of Holland again
1814: Princes Wilhelmina of Prussia comes to Haarlem to live in this building
1828: After Wilhelmina died, the city councel of Haarlem can take over the Pavillion. They do not want that much, because it costs a lot of money to restore it. They are thinking about the idea of breaking it down.
1838-1926: During this period the Pavillion is used as museum.
After that, the Provence Councel is seated in this building.
2000: A small part of the building can be visited by tourists from now on.

Highlights of Interview with Johan Neeskens
(famous soccer player, coach; he lived in Haarlem)

Question: Would you like to be the coach for the national soccer team?
Answer: No, I am a kind of person who likes to be on the field all day. I was assistant coach of the national soccer team for 4 years.

Question: When you were a professional soccer player, who was according to your opinion the best soccer player of the world?
Answer: To my opinion the best soccer player ever is Johan Cruyff and I am very happy that I played together with him for many years.

Question: If you were able to redo all things in your life, for which soccer team would you like to play the most?
Answer: Gosh, that would be a dream, considering my age. I had a wonderful time with my first team RCH, and of course also with Ajax (Amsterdam). But I probably would prefer to go back to Barcelona (Spain).

Question: What to your opion is the most beautiful place in Haarlem and Heemstede?
Answer: That would be the park Groenendaal.

[ click here to read the complete Dutch interview Johan Neeskens and watch video ]

Conclusion.
We did not know that there was so much information available about one building. We also discovered that by studying the history of such a building, you also learn a lot about the history of a country. To our opinion this is a very important reason to keep the old buildings intact and restore them. And to tell the stories of the buildings!

Sources:
Paviljoen Welgelegen 1789 - 1989, written by; Jhr. F.W.A Beelaerts van Blokland, Prof, Dr. M.G. Buist, Mevr. Dr. M.W. Kok, J. Nederhof, Mevr. Dr. H.H. Pijze;-Dommisse, Mevr. Dr. E. van der Pool-Stofkoper, Mr. L.H.M. Quant, N. De Roooy van Zuydewijn, Drs M. Schreuder, B.C.Sliggers, Mevr. Dr. H.M. Zijlstra-Zweems, Mevr. Dr. H.M. E. Zoetmulder.

Haarlem bestaat niet - written by Lennaert Nijgh.

With thanks to Mr. Johan Neeskens and Mr. Jaap Jongbloed for their time for the interviews.

This report is written by Chris, Timothy and Stanley

[ click here for more
County Hall photos ]

Secret letter (write it down, with its rank number)
8 = r

Highlights of Interview with Jaap Jongbloed
(famous presenter Dutch TV, he lives in Haarlem)

Question: How long are you a TV presenter?
Answer: In April 2001 I work 21 years for television.

Question: How long takes it to make the program "Disappeared"?
Answer: Each time it takes two weeks to finish it. Right now, we made around 150 programs, in about 5 years.

Question: Where were you born? Answer: The Hague, and you?

Question: Haarlem. Which study did you do?
Answer: Law. I learned to be a journalist just by doing it.

Question: Do you help yourself by trying to find disappeared people?
Answer: Yes, I mostly go to foreign countries to search for missing people. Recently I was in Indonesia and New York. Very exciting.

Question: do you know the pavilion / County Hall?
Answer: Yes, I know it very well, it is nearby the park Haarlemmerhout. I was there last week.

Question: Do you like the interior of the County Hall?
Answer: Beautiful, very huge, wonderful ceilings and great wall paintings.

Question: Can you give an example of what you saw more?
Answer: I was in the room of the Provence Councel. I also had dinner at a very huge table.

[ click here to read the complete Dutch interview Jaap Jongbloed and watch video ]