History
History Vreugd & Rust
At the beginning of the 19th century the 2,000-year old village of Voorburg consisted of approximately 40 country houses, the majority of which were situated alongside the local waterway, the Vliet. But by around 1900 only 23 had survived the previous century’s destruction. In 1600 the house now known as Vreugd & Rust, was just a farm, but this changed in 1686 when the property was purchased by Pieter van Groeneveldt (then Mayor of The Hague). The old house was demolished and replaced by a new house surrounded by beautiful landscaped gardens. In 1710 Mr van Groeneveldt’s widow sold the house to Barthelomeus Bosch who named the property “Vreugd & Rust”. The first time that the name appears officially is in the Deeds of Sale dated 27 June 1735 when the property was sold to Adolph Cau. Mr Cau originally came from Zeeland and was Secretary to “The Court of Holland”. Mr Cau extended the property to include an Orangerie. This is mentioned in the Deeds of Sale when Mr Cau sold Vreugd & Rust three years later. During the three years that he owned Vreugd & Rust Mr Cau also bought another country house called Lienburch which was situated on the other side of the road. Lienburch was razed to the ground and replaced by the existing orangerie. This building now houses the Brasserie “de Koepel”. Adolph Cau, who had never married, died aged 42 in 1739.
The new owner, Jan van Schuylenburch, levelled the house at Vreugd & Rust and built a new one. About two years after the death of their mother, Helene Francoise van Schuylenburch-Thierry, the children sold the house to Mr Arnoldus Adrianus van Tets, a Magistrate and Alderman of the City of Dordrecht. Mr van Tets was also a merchant for the Oost-Indische Compagnie (East India Company). On 2 March 1780 Mr van Tets followed in the steps of his predecessors by increasing the property when he purchased Waalhof, a house situated to the east of Vreugd & Rust. Waalhof extended from the Achterweg to the Broeksloot. On the other side of the Broeksloot there were a further 3 parcels of grazing/pasture land the size of 3 morgen (approximately 6 acres).
In 1784, the year that he became Governing Officer of the City of Dordrecht, Mr van Tets sold Vreugd & Rust to Mr Adriaan Caan, a gentleman from Urcem who died two years later aged 56. His widow, Hester van Staphorst, enlarged Vreugd & Rust when she purchased Zijdervliet to the west. A large part of the copse on the other side of the road was cut down to make way for a kitchen garden and orchards. The wall which surrounded this area still exists today, but the kitchen garden was replaced in 1928 by tennis courts.
On 13 March 1797 Dr. Petrus Jacobus Groen van Prinsterer came to live at Vreugd & Rust when he married the very wealthy 25-year old heiress to the property and on 21 August 1801 their son, and future Dutch Statesman, Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer was born in one of the upstairs rooms. From 1829 to 1836 Mr Guillaume was a Secretary in Willem I’s Cabinet and thereafter became a member, at various times, of the Lower House of Parliament.
Dr. Petrus was a very clever and diligent doctor and became the personal physician to both King Lodewijk Napoleon and in 1813 to King Willem I. It was during the period when he served King Lodewijk that he met Jan David Zocher Snr., a landscape gardener from Saxen, who had been given the commission for the enlargement of the garden at ‘t Huys ten Bosch. This plan contained asymmetrical and irregular groups of trees, grass and flower beds and whimsically formed ponds. After having seen the results of the garden at Palace Soestdijk and how the garden behind ‘t Huys ten Bosch had so successfully been linked to the English landscaped garden to the east of ‘t Huys, it was not surprising that Dr. Groen gave the commission for the garden at Vreugd & Rust to Jan David Zocher Jnr. (Jan Snr having died in 1817). Jan David Zocher Jnr. was born in Haarlem in 1791 and received his training as a landscape gardener from his father. Father and son had often worked together. The actual date when the garden at Vreugd & Rust was planted is not known but from the age of the trees it would have been around 1830. It is almost certain that Dr. Petrus and his wife were responsible for the construction of the side-wings to the house. Traditionally the Family Groen took tea in the koepel (cupola/small house) on the Vliet where they were able to enjoy the peaceful and glorious view over the extensive countryside of Stompwijk, all the way to the church tower in Nootdorp as well as listen to the soothing sound of water lapping in the Vliet. The tea house no longer exists and was probably sacrificed when the Vliet was broadened in 1892.
In 1805 Dr. Groen bought a splendid house on the Korte Vijverberg in The Hague (now No. 3) which is used to accommodate the Queen’s Cabinet. The family stayed in the house during the winter months and used Vreugd & Rust as a summer residence.
When Dr. Groen died in 1837 his eldest daughter Cornelia Adriana Groen van Prinsterer inherited Vreugd & Rust and upon her death the property came into the hands of her only daughter, Jacqueline Adriana Henriette. Jacqueline married Otto Baron van Wassenaer van Catwijck who was appointed Major of Voorburg in 1856. The couple resided in Vreugd & Rust for many years and both had their own carriage: consisting of a coach with a groom, a coachman and six horses. This was unheard of in Voorburg at that time and Princess Marianne, the village’s nobility and whose property Rusthof bordered onto Vreugd & Rust, felt forced to drive in a carriage drawn by eight horses. She could hardly ask the Family van Wassenaer-Hoffman to leave two horses in the stables!
Jacqueline van Wassenaer-Hoffman was the first Director of the Sophia Bewaarschool, the first kindergarten in The Netherlands. In 1884 Otto Baron van Wassenaer bought the carpenter’s house and grounds on the Rozenboomlaan which became the school head-master’s residence in 1885. When Baron van Wassenaer died in 1887 his widow inherited the estate which at that time included 6 farms. Jacqueline van Wassenaer-Hoffman died two years later.
Because the marriage had been childless Vreugd & Rust reverted back to the Groen van Prinsterer family, namely Maria Clazina who was the youngest sister of Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer and upon her death to her daughter Elisabeth Henriette Maria. Elisabeth was governor of the Sophia Bewaarschool from 1889 until 1918 and was married to Mr B.C. de Jonge who was president of the Court of Justice of The Hague. On 23 August 1916 Elisabeth sold Vreugd & Rust to the Municipality of The Hague and on 23 January 1928 the remaining four farms and land were sold.
In 1920 the house was rented out and furnished as a hotel/restaurant, whilst the orangerie and the lawn in front of it were used as a tea house. Due to a lack of patronage the restaurant, along with everything that was connected with it, closed its doors in 1927. In that same year the Montessori School was opened and remained at Vreugd & Rust until it moved to new premises in 1973. Vreugd & Rust then became a training college for nurses until 1984.
From then until 1989 the house fell into disrepair until Henk Savelberg saw the potential and had the building restored to its former glory which allowed Vreugd & Rust to sparkle like a jewel once again.
