VOLUME CXXXIISEPTEMBER 5, 1927NUMBER 2528
THE
AMERICAN ARCHITECT
FOUNDED 1876
THE END of the WINDMILL
Text and Photographs By Gerald K. Geerlings
IN thfier tire category of long-lived beliefs probably nqie is more carefully edited and pigeonholed than tjjsfosi about Holland. Valentines, advertisements and Christmas calendars which the corner groceryjl give, away, have collectively established a c£ildhooc conception and a mature conviction. Imffi a c uTa 1 e cleanliness, wmoden-shoes, neat cottages along clear canals have always summed up Holland to us.
Yet the actual Holland of today is not that—entirely.
Our childhood belief in Holland is like the truth about Santa Claus —difficult not to believe at first, but perfectly easy afterward. Just as knowing the facts about Christmas made it twice as significant, so also with the present-day realities of Holland.
You may still see “Dutch costumes” in their proverbial form if you take a tourist-trip to Marken— a day’s excursion starting from the main station at Amsterdam. When you land at the fisherman’s island you will see everything expected of timehonored tradition, from flopping, lace-eared caps to the Dutchman’s interpretation of “plus-fours.” Unless you have a Dutch friend to warn you previously, you will not know that the stage has been set for you, and that just before your boat arrived on schedule time the populace hurriedly changed its clothes to attract your guilders. After you depart the inhabitants are again dressed very much as fisher-folk of Cape Cod. Occasionally you may see a greater percentage of wooden shoes in Holland than in other places of Europe. Rarely there may
be a full pair of breeches or a bonnet. But, if it were not for unfamiliar signs and language in the cities, the impression would grow that you were not in a foreign land after all, but at home in the States.
It is likely that a traveller seeing every country in Europe and visiting Holland last would be con
vinced that it is more akin to America than any other place. It is one of the rare continental nations which has quite generally dropped the medieval notion of erecting bombproof gratings and shutters in front of shop windows at night. It seems to be the only country in Europe that thinks of utilizing shop window space by illumination in the evening. Outside of England it is the one place where one can feel confident in using our own language upon entering a shop without the customary, “Do you speak English?” The poly-linguistical abilities of the people cannot be overestimated, nor fully appreciated until one has heard and believed that the ambition of every Hollander to speak six tongues is so generally realized.
To see Holland after other countries is to appreciate its unique qualities the more. The prevalent idea in most of Europe that the tourist is legitimate prey to be overcharged and imposed upon, seems to be absent in great measure in the Netherlands. Hotels have fixed prices displayed, and bills are astoundingly correct—a blow almost as stunning as the customary “padded” bill. Shops have prices marked as in the United States, and sales are made without the bargaining which is such an integral
THE BOURSE, AMSTERDAM
MAIN FACADE
{Copyright, 1927, The Architectural S’ Building Press, Inc.)
THE
AMERICAN ARCHITECT
FOUNDED 1876
THE END of the WINDMILL
Text and Photographs By Gerald K. Geerlings
IN thfier tire category of long-lived beliefs probably nqie is more carefully edited and pigeonholed than tjjsfosi about Holland. Valentines, advertisements and Christmas calendars which the corner groceryjl give, away, have collectively established a c£ildhooc conception and a mature conviction. Imffi a c uTa 1 e cleanliness, wmoden-shoes, neat cottages along clear canals have always summed up Holland to us.
Yet the actual Holland of today is not that—entirely.
Our childhood belief in Holland is like the truth about Santa Claus —difficult not to believe at first, but perfectly easy afterward. Just as knowing the facts about Christmas made it twice as significant, so also with the present-day realities of Holland.
You may still see “Dutch costumes” in their proverbial form if you take a tourist-trip to Marken— a day’s excursion starting from the main station at Amsterdam. When you land at the fisherman’s island you will see everything expected of timehonored tradition, from flopping, lace-eared caps to the Dutchman’s interpretation of “plus-fours.” Unless you have a Dutch friend to warn you previously, you will not know that the stage has been set for you, and that just before your boat arrived on schedule time the populace hurriedly changed its clothes to attract your guilders. After you depart the inhabitants are again dressed very much as fisher-folk of Cape Cod. Occasionally you may see a greater percentage of wooden shoes in Holland than in other places of Europe. Rarely there may
be a full pair of breeches or a bonnet. But, if it were not for unfamiliar signs and language in the cities, the impression would grow that you were not in a foreign land after all, but at home in the States.
It is likely that a traveller seeing every country in Europe and visiting Holland last would be con
vinced that it is more akin to America than any other place. It is one of the rare continental nations which has quite generally dropped the medieval notion of erecting bombproof gratings and shutters in front of shop windows at night. It seems to be the only country in Europe that thinks of utilizing shop window space by illumination in the evening. Outside of England it is the one place where one can feel confident in using our own language upon entering a shop without the customary, “Do you speak English?” The poly-linguistical abilities of the people cannot be overestimated, nor fully appreciated until one has heard and believed that the ambition of every Hollander to speak six tongues is so generally realized.
To see Holland after other countries is to appreciate its unique qualities the more. The prevalent idea in most of Europe that the tourist is legitimate prey to be overcharged and imposed upon, seems to be absent in great measure in the Netherlands. Hotels have fixed prices displayed, and bills are astoundingly correct—a blow almost as stunning as the customary “padded” bill. Shops have prices marked as in the United States, and sales are made without the bargaining which is such an integral
THE BOURSE, AMSTERDAM
MAIN FACADE
{Copyright, 1927, The Architectural S’ Building Press, Inc.)