Former School Maatschappij voor Weldadigheid - Veenhuizen - the Netherlands - Former Schools on Waymarking.com

At the beginning of the 19th century, there was great poverty throughout the Netherlands. In the big cities, the orphanages were overcrowded and municipalities had no money to take care of the children. Johannes van den Bosch had devised a plan to take good care of the orphans with less costs. He received permission from the King to carry out his plan.

The area around Veenhuizen had not yet been cultivated at all, before the children could go to the orphanages, roads had to be built, canals had to be dug, peat was excavated, farms had to be built. There was also a sawmill, furniture factory, forge, clog factory and a shop.
Van den Bosch wanted to turn it into self-sufficient agricultural communities.
Three orphanages were built, square buildings 145 metres x 145 metres, each building could house 1.200 orphans.
The children were brought here by boat and were housed in a group of 80 children.
There was one room parent per 80 children.
The children went to school for two hours a day, which was very exceptional at that time. There they learned to read, write and count. Then they had to work on the land or in the kitchen.
After reaching the age of 18, children that could find a job were permitted to leave the orphanage.

Because not enough children were sent to Veenhuizen, the second asylum was not used for the shelter of children but for the vagrants, vagabonds and criminals.

The school built here at Buitengracht 2 is not the original one from the Tweede Gesticht. The Tweede Gesticht was an independent community in which the school was integrated.
The Asylums as designed and built by General van den Bosch turned out to be far too expensive to operate.
In 1850 they were taken over by the government and transformed into government work facilities. The criminals of the Second Asylum had to work and serve their sentences here.
The residential function of Het Tweede Gesticht disappeared and a new prison was built, Esserheem, close by.
This school was used for the education of patients and prisoners of Esserheem. In 1875 the school was built to a design by government architect J.F. Metzelaar. It housed three schoolrooms and a carpentry shop. The medical service of Esserheem has also used this school.
Currently, the school building is used by a company that builds exclusive handmade kitchens.

Address: Oude Gracht 2 Veenhuizen, Drenthe the Netherlands 9341 AB Web Site: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log   09/10/2023 Theodd1 visited it 02/19/2022 eilers1 visited it

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