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The "Doelen" was originally a place for the militia to practice their marksmanship skills. Not a bad idea, since they were responsible for maintaining peace and order in the city and also for its possible defense against enemies. The Doelen also served as a shelter for the archers as well as an inn and lodge. When the old Doelen became too dilapidated, the militia decided to build a new shelter.
The eye of the militia fell on a location nearby, on De Zarken. Here, among other things, it bought "'t dubbele huis en erve" from the widow Susanne Condet in 1742. Looking at a map from 1698, one sees in this yard a deep house with a gabled roof, which extends far to the rear. On the west side there is a small transverse house against it. Possibly this deep house and transverse house together were the "double house".
Many old drawings and historical photographs of De Nieuwe Doelen show that the building used to have not one roof structure, but two gable roofs! This is quite striking; why hadn't they just made one roof? Could they perhaps have left the deep house shown on the 1698 map and replaced the transverse house with a second deep house, and then made the two deep houses into one? This is not at all crazy, because it used to be very common to reuse materials and even whole buildings. Labor was cheap, but material was very expensive! But.... one also had one's pride, of course.
Therefore, was the beautiful gable crowning ('pediment') with the coat of arms of Monnickendam placed in front of the two separate gabled roofs to mask this frugal reuse!
However, because after years the militia still could not pay off the high building debt, it sold the property to the city in 1786. In 1819, "De Nieuwe Doelen" was sold by the city to one Johannes de Wijs, who kept a café-restaurant and hotel in it.
It must not have been luxurious at this time. Thus, a diary from 1823 records that hotel guest Dirk Hogendorp was given a hotel room, which was 'cramped and miserably small; at three o'clock the fleas chased him out of bed!'
Perhaps Johannes was simply not cut out for the hotel business, because already in 1824 the hotel was sold. Whatever the case, today you are guaranteed a clean and well-spread bed in our spacious, bright and attractively furnished rooms!
In 1881 the hotel was expanded with a golf course at the rear. Golf is a game or sport in which points can be scored by hitting a ball with a bat against a post. Originally, players had to hit a designated target in the distance (for example, a tree) with as few strokes as possible or get as far as possible with a prearranged number of strokes. But the managers of inns and taverns preferred not to see their customers leave chasing these distant balls; after all, they would get too few customers! Therefore, the smaller version of the game was developed on an indoor course, which is still played in our country today. Meanwhile, the golf course of this hotel is long gone, but very likely it was the building we see on the right in the old photo to the right. By the way, in this photo, taken towards the back of the building, we can also very clearly see the former double roof!
An 1890 newspaper advertisement states that a Rover Safety bicycle is offered for sale at the hotel. Possibly this bicycle had belonged to the manager Dirk Klaver, who had died a few months earlier. The Rover Safety bicycle is actually the primal version of today's bicycle. It had only been sold in our country since 1885 and was also known as the 'safety bicycle'. Indeed, unlike the much less practical 'Hoge bi', which had one big and one small wheel, the safety had much less risk of falling over.
The owner of the Doelen Hôtel, the widow J.S. Dekema, was proud of her pea soup. This dish was a regular treat for the chilled skaters on their way to (then still) the island of Marken. Widow Dekema was thus very unpleasantly surprised when an anonymous, negative review of her pea soup appeared in the Algemeen Handelsblad. She did not let this "pea soup issue" stand. Having recovered from the shock, she took the courage to ask some very distinguished guests if they liked the pea soup. This turned out to be the case, whereupon widow Dekema asked these gentlemen if they wanted to confirm their satisfaction with a signature, to which they were indeed willing. Thus a day later the following clear text appeared in the Algemeen Handelsblad:
Between 1888 and 1956 'The Waterland streetcar' operated in the region north of Amsterdam. This was a steam streetcar until 1932, but in that year it was replaced by an electric streetcar. The Doelen Hotel was the first stop in Monnickendam.
In 1937, the property was converted into the mayor's residence. In the process, the two old gable roofs were replaced by one new roof, in the form of a truncated hipped roof. This was because the old attic had become very dilapidated. This was probably due to the pocket gutter that ran between the two gable roofs. Such gutters are known for many moisture problems, because if they become clogged, the rainwater cannot leave and leakage into the attic quickly occurs.
So while the attic and roofs were replaced, it was imperative that the artfully wavy pediment with the coat of arms of Monnickendam be preserved, and repositioned slightly lower. In the 1937 specifications, it is very clearly specified several times that in case of unexpected damage to the pediment (here called: 'cornice') the contractor would be held fully responsible for it! The beautiful consoles in rococo style (a frivolous baroque style) were also to be reinstated.
The above-mentioned cultural-historical research has been conducted by Bureau Bouwtijd.
Text: Jacqueline de Graauw
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(Edits by Bureau Bouwtijd)
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