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THE NIAS BUILDINGS
The N IAS buildings a re situa ted in a residen ti a l area o f
\V: I ~se naar with the unusual name o f 'Rijksdorp'.
\nwa da ys the a rea consists of about a hundred lUXury
\ dlas. Formerl y the land was part of a rural estate,
l-; t1kd Rijksd o rp, which lent its name to the
IlL' ighbourhood. T he re is a long but rather undefined
l1 i ~ lO r y to thi s estate, nestled in the dunes behind the
:'L' a .
I
The nam e of Rijksdorp - possibly from
that is Henri ck's farm is old and to be
i"(lund as early as the fourteenth ce ntury, when it
~ lJ)p ca red as th e name o f a 1~\J·mstead. The prec ise
"pclling o f the name va ried great ly ove r the years as was
lI ~ lIal then , includi ng 'Rixd orp', 'Rij xdorp', ' Rijcxdorp'
,lr ·R ijkxdorp'. From the second half of the nineteenth
~' C!llury onward, however, the name was m ore or less
L'PIls istently written as R ijksdorp.
We know that in the seventeenth century Rijksdorp
\I,I ~ a large L-shaped farm, located just about in the
(CI)\[(: of the present residentia l area (roughl y at the spot
Pi" the villa at Van Bronckhorstlaa n No. 11). Part of this
1~1rI11 continued to exist under the name o f
' lllinm a nswonin g' , that is gardener's ho use, until it was
removed in 1968.
In 1663 Ameli s van den Bouchorst , a ve ry wealthy
Ihlhkman and large landowner, who had added the farm
dml la nd to hi s property in 1657, decided to have a large
country hou se o n that location. This building was
const ructed accord ing to a design by the well known
a rchitect Piete r Post. Thi s Rijksdorp (situated in the
midd le of the present-day Pieter Postlaan) was
c()Jllpleted in 1668. just one year before Van den
B() lIchorst died. It was a t~lm ous estate, often depicted ill
paintings.
:\ !'ter the death of its owner the ho use cha nged ha nds
J'rl'llllciltly for over a century. These circumstances were
11<)[ very favourable to the state of repair of the mansion,
and cwntuall y, in 1824, the Pieter Post buildi ng was
demoli shed. Th e name of Rijksdorp then pa ssed on to a
nell co untry house which was built in 1835 in the
nCl ghho urin g area of 'Coxhorn' (situated ro ugh ly on th e
land behind th e present villa at K atwijkse weg No, 22).
. J knrickstorp',
::::1:
Yml'S
This mansi o n 11 0 lo nger exist s eit her and , after having
end ed up as a bulb-shed. it was d emo li shed in 1919.
To complete the sto ry, I shou ld al so mention that
elsewhere in Wassena ar. at the Berkheistraal. the
mansion 'Ni euw Rijksdorp', that is New Rij ksdo rp, was
constructed in 1895, Thi s house was a cop y of the 1835
ho use and wa s commi ssioned by Co unt Martinus va n
Li mburg Stirum. who then still li ved in Rijk sdo rp.
However, even this house did not escape the fate o f the
other buildings and was fin a lly dem olished in 1984 after
having served as a n old people's home.
So now today, a ll the houses ca lled Rijksdorp have
disappea red and the name is exclusively rese rved for the
resid ential neighbourhood.
From Estate to Residential Area
The immediate s urrou ndings of the Rij ksdorp esta te the whole area behind the tiunes from the Wassenaarse
Slag LIp to the Pan va n Persijn - were a completely
wooded area arou nd 1850. Shortly after 1900 the major
part of this woodland \-vas cut down and part of the
inl and dunes was dug away in o rde r to grow bulbs there.
The wood in the late r Rijksdorp residential a rea ,
T he LH;a Je of the Rijksdorp manor designed
or ,vIAS
by Pietcr Post.
3/
however, was left untouched. To this day the wooded
character is a dominating feature of the neighbourhood.
In 1913 the council of Wassenaar decided to reserve
the Rijksdorp estate, about 48 hectares in total, for
building. In 1916 the estate area was acquired by a
company called 'CF.A. Jonkers & Co's Maatschappij
tot Exploitatie van het Villa park Rijksdorp'. As the
Company's name indicated, the land was bought with
the explicit purpose of developing the former estate into
a residential neighbourhood. The white villa 'De Witte
Hooghf at top of the dune, to the left as seen from the
NIAS main building, was built in 1925 by the influential
architect A.H. Wegerif as the residence of Jonkers Sr.,
Director of the Company.
The selling of the various lots met with difficulty and
proceeded very slowly. The first new owner and occupier
in the district was Mr. JW. Dijckmeester. who bought a
lot (Van Bergenlaan No. 13) in 1920 and moved into his
house in 1921. Between 1921 and 1929 some twenty
villas were built. Then the recession came and paralysed
all construction work. The Rijksdorp residential area as
we know it now, with its present allotments and modern
villas, was developed mainly after the Second World
War.
/o,/(/il1 Building of NIAS
On an extensive parcel in Rijksdorp the architect S. de
Clerq in 1923 built a capital villa for the family GM. del
Court van Krimpen who lived at the time in the eastern
part of the Netherlands, in the Province of GeIderiand.
The parcel, measuring 32,960 m 2 and containing the old
'tuinmanswoning' mentioned before, was enclosed by
the Van der Doeslaan to the south, the Meijboomlaan to
the west and the Laan van Rhemen van Rhemenshuizen
to the north. Also in these grounds at some distance
from the villa a separate garage in the same
architectural style was constructed.
Major changes and later extensions have somewhat
obscured the original layout of the house. The drawing
room (with mantelpiece), the smoking room and the
veranda together have been turned into the present
library. What was then the dining room is now the
Director's office. The kitchen, the laundry and the
servants' room were located on the ground floor of the
northern wing, where also the tradesmen's entrance
(now a small kitchen) and the servants' staircase (still
existing) were situated.
22~~
The present common room on the second floor used
to be the nursery and the seminar room one of the
childrens' bedrooms. The office of the Executive
Director was the master bedroom, with an adjacent bath
room and a dressing room (now fellow study rooms). A
large and a small guest room were located on the second
floor of the northern wing. On the third floor of this
wing were located two servants rooms (now charming
study rooms). The rest of the attic floor contained a
great many rooms, among which were at least four
bedrooms.
As a point of interest I should mention that during
her student days at the University of Leiden Princess
Juliana, the later Queen of the Netherlands, stayed in
the house several times. no doubt in the large guest
room. At the time Princess Juliana was a close friend of
one of the family's five daughters.
Early in 1943, when the German occupation ordered
Rijksdorp to be completely evacuated because of the
construction of a defence system of bunkers in the dunes
nearby, the family had to vacate the house.
Unfortunately, the master of the house Gerard Martinus
del Court van Krimpen died at the end of 1944. After
the war his wife did return to the house. but not for long.
Having been unoccupied for several years the
building then first housed the 'Eerste Nederlandse
Jongensstad' (First Netherlands Boys' Town) 'Boys
Ranch', a Catholic institute for boys from Surinam and
the Netherlands East Indies; subsequently it served as a
home for Indonesian midshipmen, and finally as a
boarding house for repatriates from the former
Netherlands East Indies.
In August 1955 the family sold the house with the
garage but only a part of the grounds (about 13,057 m 2 )
for the sum of f 102.210 to the 'Politie-Opleidingsschool
Zuid-Holland' (Police Training School of the Province of
South Holland). With this transfer we enter the second
stage of the history of the building.
In January 1955 a number of Burgomasters with their
own municipal police corps in the Province of South
Holland had joined in a common training scheme for
police recruits and founded a Police Training School in
Wassenaar. The school started that very January and
from I April of that year it was accommodated in the
villa at Meijboomlaan I, which was only formally
purchased a few months later. On 2 April 1955 the then
Royal Commissioner in the Province of South Holland,
Years of NIAS
Ae rial photograph of the NI AS gro unds (with the wooden barrack in the centre) in the 19605 when the property was being used as a
I'<llice Tra ining School.
Mr. L. A. Kesper, officially opened the new Police
Training School.
In 1959 a permit was granted to change and extend
the building. T his extension had become necessary when
citi es from the Provinces of Zeeland and Utrecht joined
the a rrangement. 1.c. and A.1. Bolten, both architects,
we re commissioned to design the extension. A new wing
22:0 Years
was added to the southern side of the vill a, consisting of
two floors: on the ground floor a number of classrooms,
a small library and an office, and on the second floor
dormitori es and bathroom facilities. It is this wing
which nowadays houses 24 study rooms for NIAS
fellows. The present NIAS library was dining and
recreation room at the time.
or N/AS
M cijbooml aan I with the new extension o n the southern side.
The renovated a nd extended build ing was officia ll y reopened by the then Minister of H ome Amlirs, Mr. E.H.
Toxopeus, on 5 September 1960. O n that day the fift h
anni versary of the school was also celebrated , a lthough
thi s act ua lly fell ea rlier in the year, on 21 Janua ry 1960.
In 1966 a permit was granted to build a temporary
sch ool ho use. A timber building was constructed
contai ning 4 equa lly sized class rooms, and situa ted near
the present bike shed. Fellows of th e fi rst research years
will ce rtainly remember this co nstructi on since N lAS
ada pted the building to functi on as kitchen, dining
room, recreation room a nd a mee ti ng room.
However, it soon became clear that the
accom modation was too small and in the autumn of
1968 the Police Training School left Wassenaar
a ltogether and moved to Leusden, to the barracks of the
fo rme r concentration ca mp 'Amersfoort' (where the
notori o us Kot~i1la had o perated as camp commander).
Th e plan was to add a completely new building which
was reali sed two years later.
O n 31 M ay 1971 NI AS bought the villa and the
ga rage and the gro und s (then meas ured a t 12,9 16 111")
fo r the sum of f 650,000. The internal layout was
cha nged considerably to adapt it to the specific
requirements of the new owner. Thi s is the third stage of
the hi story of the ho use.
An impo rtant extension took pl ace in 1977 when a
buildin g was added a t the western si de of the vi lla,
conta ining 4 study rooms on the gro und floor a nd a
conference room with a rema rkable roof constrllcti on o n
the second floor. Thi s extensio n, designed by the
a rchitect J.L. G elde rblol11. unlike that earlier 1959
extension, adjusted ha rmonioll sly to the style of the
origin al villa.
In 1979, th ree yea rs a fter NI AS had acquired the villa
' O oievaa rsnest' on the o pposite side of the street, a
footbridge was cons tructed o ve r the small stream. Soon
a bicycle and tool shed were added a t the rear of the
mai n bu ilding.
Fi na lly. in 1989 a permit was gra nted to con struct a
tennis court with fe ncing in the gro unds behind the
m a in building, ro ughl y where th e new C onference
Building is now situa ted. This opt io n has so far not
become reality, no do ubt because of the completion of
somethin g more substantial.
Uilenes{
The present residence 'U ilenest' - fo rmerly called
Simpson Hall after o ne of the fell ows from the fi rst
research year - was initially constructed as the garage to
Bluep rint of the so ut hern o uter wall or the U ilenest in it s o ri gin a l
form comprising o nl y a gro und floor.
.~L..&
the vill a of the fa mil y del C o un va n Krimpen. In th ose
days the building comprised o nl y a ground fl oor with a
fla t roof.
T hi s appearance cha nged in 193 7 when the ga rage
wa s ex tended to incl ude a resid ence above (to serve as
staff accommoda tion). In thi s way the building reached
its present cha rming a ppearance with its characteristic
outs ide stairs to t he second floo r, a ltho ugh the southern
wa ll st ill contained do uble doors in stead of the two
22!·-J Years ojNIAS
pr<.''L'III-da y windmvs. Th e address then was: Me ijhoo mlaan 1.\.
\1'1,: 1" N IAS took ove r the grounds in 197 1. the la y-oul
o f Ihe ground fl oor changed radicall y. FOLlr rooms, each
\, ilh ;1 sin gle hathroom. replaced the fo rmer garage
sraCL'. TIl<? d ouble d oors were reduced to windows. Also
t hL' Ll\- LHlt of the second tloor was sli ghtl y changed as a
r<.'su ll of the construction of a new bat hroom th ere.
\p;lrl from this handful of facts, nothing spec tacular
<.';tl1 he added a ho llt this tiny villa, \\hi ch nowadays
olkrs accommndation to tour fellow s or guests. while
the' il al o n the :;econd floor is used by one of the N lAS
sl:llr members. R ece ntl y the name of the hLlilding ha s
h,xn e h,lnged to U iJenest ('Owl's Nest") , referring not
Lln h te) th e N IAS logo but also to the man y owls who
;Il'l ;l;tlh inhabit the vicinitv.
,
J
()(Jicl'lwrsnesl
In IlJ2 5 C.FA Jo nkers Sr. sold, at the price of / 5,25 per
m ~ , three pa rcels o f building land to the NV .
' Wasse naarsche Grondbezit Maatschappij to t
Explo itatie van en Handel in Onroe rend e Zaken',
esta bli shed that ve ry day and represent ed by the two
members of the Boa rd of Directors, Mr. Jac. Ladiges
from Am sterdam and Mr. J. Schipper from Wasse naar.
It was stipulated in the transaction that on two of the
parcels on ly a single villa, but on the third a double villa
could be constructed. This latter parcel was the ground
on which the Ooievaarsnest was built . The co nstruction
of the yill a start ed in 1926.
The prese nt Ooievaarsnest was indeed co nst ructed as
a d o uble vill a. Thi s ex plains the ma ny entra nces to the
hOllse. The entra nce to the \vestern vill a (I) was situa ted
p(l;;tc'a rd of the Ooievaar:;nest from th e period the villa was still hein g ll sed as a training school for midwiws.
35
31i
at the corner of the M eijboom laan and the Laan van
Rhemen van Rhemenshuizen. Nowadays this entrance
hall accommodates a washing ma chine and a drie r. The
entra nce to the eastern villa UJ) was located one floo r
up at the other side of the building which is constructed
in against a dune hill. This is now a part of the N lAS
restaurant. The current main entrance to the buildin g
did not exist at the time.
The spacious central staircase with its landings is a
la ter extension. Previously on the ground Hoor there was
the garage of villa I and o n the second floor the livin g
room of villa [I. Th e ga ra ge of villa II was what is now
the fitness room. The present kitchen on th e ground
fl oor was the living roo m. the present office room was
the dining room and the sc ullery the kitchen of villa I.
Where nowada ys the food counter of the NIAS
restaurant is situated used to be a bedroom with a
bathroom under the pitched roof.
We do not know much of the occupants of the house
in the period before the Second World war. As far as the
house is concerned, we do know that in 1928 a radica l
conve rsion of the building took place. The double villa
was transformed into a single house. A large staircase
replaced the two original sta ircases (for villa I in the ha ll
next to kitchen and for villa II in the room for the
hea ting system next to the fitness room). The second
floor now became the princ ipa l floor of the house. The
master bedroom was on the third floor where now the
NIAS bar ' De Lonkende UiI' is situated.
The villa remained the property of the above
mentioned NY until in October 1942 it was sold
together with a large parcel of building land to Karl
Schafer, a restorer from The Hague, for f 50,000. We are
now in the period o f the German occupation at the time
when the Germans ordered the complete evacuation of
Rijk sdorp. As far as we can gather Schafer neve r li ved
in the house. After the war, in Jul y 1945 when Schafer
had already left for Germany, the villa was expropriated
as enemy property.
In early March 1947 the public auction of the house
took place. During the auct ion procedure the hou se of
the Rotterdam banker A. van Hoboken across the street
(Laan van Rhemen van Rh emenshuizen No. 12) burned
down one evening. That very night, while the thatched
roof of the house was still burning, Van Hoboken
decided to buy the villa a nd m oved to the other sid e. He
li ved there until the hou se was sold in 1951 in a double
22 .~, !
transaction (for f 37,000 and again f 45,0(0) to the
'Zu id-Hollandsch e Bond van het Wit Gele Krui s', a
Catholic instituti o n. The parcel was then only about
two-thirds of the size (3,964 m 2 ) o f the land (6,241 m 2 )
Van Ho boken bought in 1947.
The villa was again rad ica lly renovated to
accommodate a training school for midwives. The name
for the building ('Stork's Nest') clearly dates from this
period. The bedroom with bathroom, nowadays food
counter, was transform ed into a chapel with altar. Also
on that floor there were a class room, a dining room, a
recrea tion room and the office of the rector. On the thi rd
floor, now bar. the room of the lady principal was
situated.
On 24 September 1976 the villa and surrounding la nd
(3,965111 2 ) were sold to NIAS fo rt 625,000. It was added
to the NIAS properties, though se parated from the main
grounds by a public road a nd a stream, to replace the
wooden barrack whose d ismantling had been agreed
upon five years earlier. The layout of the building was
then considerably changed for a third time to include a
dining room and allow a number of fellows to live close
by the institute.
When in the mid-eighties N lAS s uffered a fin ancia l
setback and the expensive building could no longer be
maintained, it was decided to sell off the Ooiervaa rsnest.
This decision was reversed o nl y a t the very last m om ent
when the importance of the pl ace for the further
development of the institute was fully recognized , a turn
of events to which the new Director contributed greatly.
Conference Building
In conjunction with the idea of selling off the
Ooievaarsnest, plans had been developed to extend the
main building by adding rooms in which fellows could
li ve. Since this could not provide the institute with the 30
room s it would need to be able to meet its mission
a lte rnati ve plans were developed. One was to erect a
new building in the main grounds of NIAS near the
Uilenest. The second was to replace the Ooievaa rsnest
by a new building. In terms of costs there was little
between these two solutions. It was thought that a good
1.5 million guilders would be sufficient to create 24 to 26
double guest rooms , a kitchen, restaurant and a fitness
room.
No immediate decision was taken, but N lAS began
efforts to raise f 2,000,000. Obviously, that was no easy
Years oj" tVIAS
t ~h j,: But after the Praemium Erasmianu!l1 Fo undation
dl)!1al Cd I 500,000 on condition that NlAS would use
the l1c'ncfits to he lp yo ung scholars. the Mini ster or
EducltilHl a nd Science decl ared himself willing to
PH)\ Id e / 1.350,000 if the Academy would also chip in .
By carefully managin g these resources and N I AS's own
() rit' IIl ~t1
gro unds in the sa me peri od a s the new building - as a
continuation of that building. It was th en planned just
across the terrace. Thi s also explains the two entrances
to the conrerence hall. which were meant to open on to
lWO pa ths leading to the entrance of the rose garden and
eventually encompassing its wa lls.
design of t he new Conference Building with a pitched roof and the Persian Rose Garden lying adjacent to the building
(not rea lised)
budget , it proved poss ible to kill two bird s with one
that is to have a new Con fere nce Building and to
renovate the Ooi evaa rsnest as \vell.
The architect M.S .M . Grasveld of the firm o f
a rchitects LlAG from The Hague was invited to make
the design. The first design o f the building was equipped
not with a rounded roof hut with a pitched roof and a
fourth fioor. Th e upper flat s sho uld then ha ve had two
Il lh)rs. However, lhe design was changed to
;\ccommodate objections ra ised by the loca l residents.
The building consi sts of three parts. a confe rence hall
in l he centre and on bo th sides a bl oc k of guest rooms ,
.:', in all. Origina lly it was planned to ha ve the Persian
Ro se Garden - which was constructed in the main
~lone.
Had the o riginal plan gone a head th e Persia n R ose
Ga rden would then have been situa ted in the shadow of
huge beech trees with poo r chances for the flowers to
fl o uri sh. For th at reaso n it \Vas decided to place the
gard en at the rea r of the main building. The
constructi o n of the ga rden, designed by the la ndsca pe
architect Annet Brandes, was donated from a legacy by
the Swiss psychiatrist a nd form e r NIAS fellow Kenowe r
W. Ba sh in memory o f his wife Joha nna Liechti.
On I November 1993, together with the renovated
Ooievaarsnest. the new Co nference Building was
offici a lly opened by State Secretary for Education and
Science Dr. M .J Cohen. Further a sculpture by Peler
Kattenberg. call ed 'Trophy', was unveiled on the
37
occasion. The sculpture is a gift by the NIAS Fellows
Association to NIAS. This piece of art may be the most
recent, but I am sure it will not be the last addition to
the NIAS buildings in Wassenaar.
3S
I This article is based both on archival and interview results and
on material from two publications on Rijksdorp: G.J. van
Nimwegen. ·Rijksdorp. De geschiedenis van cen landgoed'. in:
E.M.Ch.M. Janson (ed.), W(1.lsCII{[lIr .. ToCil. ECII humic! historischc
.Ichcrscn, uitgegel'l'l1 IeI' ge!egcl1hcid rail hel ]5-jarig hCSTillI11 Villi de
Hisiorisclle Vaeniging '(Jud WaSSellll{[r' (Rijswijk, 1982) 89·138
and JP.M. Goudeau e.a., 'De Rijksdorpen'. in: Jaarhockjc v(}or
Gesclliedellis ell Olldhcidkllllde rail Leidcn I'll OmslrdclI 1984 (Vo!.
(,7)
123-154.
The Persian Rose Garden, also known as the Golestan Garden.
]2~-2
fCllrs olNJAS