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West-Indisch Huis (Amsterdam)
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Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...
(Geoctroyeerde Westindische Compagnie or Chartered West India Company) in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. In this building, the Dutch West India Company's governors in 1625 ordered the construction of a fort on the island of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, laying the foundations for New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
The West-Indisch Huis is located on the Herenmarkt, a small square between the Haarlemmerstraat and Brouwersgracht canal in the center of Amsterdam. The building was constructed in 1617 as a meat market (on the ground floor) and waiting room for the local militia (on the upper floor). In 1623 it was rented by the Dutch West India Company, founded two years earlier, and was used until 1647 for meetings by the governing board of the Dutch West India Company. During this time the building was expanded with two wings around a central courtyard, tripling the size of the building. In 1647, the Dutch West India Company got into financial troubles and was forced to move to the West-Indisch Pakhuis, a Dutch West India Company warehouse on the IJ
IJ (bay)
The IJ is a river, formerly a bay, in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is known for being Amsterdam's waterfront. The name derives from the generic Germanic term for "water" and is similar to other Aa/Ee names for bodies of water. In Dutch, the name consists of the digraph ij, which is...
waterfront, which thereafter became known as the West-Indisch Huis.
From 1660 the building was in use as gentlemen's lodgings (a hotel) and in 1825 it became a home for orphans and the elderly. The building underwent renovations that included removal of the high front porch and plastering of the facade.
In 1975 a fire ravaged the building. The following year a foundation was set up to restore and manage the building. The restorations took place in the period 1978-1981, at a cost of 12 million guilders. In the courtyard, a fountain was placed with a bronze statue of Peter Stuyvesant
Peter Stuyvesant
Peter Stuyvesant , served as the last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was renamed New York...
, governor of New Netherland
New Netherland
New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
, the Dutch colony on the east coast of what is now the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Following renovation the building was allocated for elderly people's homes and used as municipal wedding hall.
Currently, the West-Indisch Huis has municipal monument status and is in use as office space and venue for conferences, weddings and other events. The John Adams Institute, which aims to further cultural exchange between The Netherlands and the U.S., is housed in the building.
Other Dutch towns, including Dordrecht
Dordrecht
Dordrecht , colloquially Dordt, historically in English named Dort, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the fourth largest city of the province, having a population of 118,601 in 2009...
, also had (or still have) a West-Indisch Huis. These served as headquarters for the local chambers of the Dutch West India Company. In addition to the West-Indisch Huis, Amsterdam also has an Oost-Indisch Huis
Oost-Indisch Huis (Amsterdam)
The Oost-Indisch Huis is an early 17th-century building in the centre of Amsterdam. It was a headquarters of the Dutch East India Company ....
("East India House") which served as headquarters for the Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
.