Just outside Heemskerk there is an old dilapidated house. Seen it many times and have even consider to go for some pictures. Somehow never got to it.
Until some days ago a colleague photographer from Heemskerk told me that it might soon not reachable anymore. This because the town council was considering to sell it.
So this morning Marissa (a niece of Marion) and I went to this old abandoned house just outside the town of Heemskerk…
I knew nothing about this house… that is until I looked up the address of the house on the Internet: “Rijksstraatweg 217 Heemskerk”.
And now it gets really interesting. It turns out that this old house is a monument: Rijksstraatweg 217 was built around 1900 as a horticulturist home. The property is known as “De Vlotter”. The building is situated on the west side of the Rijksstraatweg and is on some distance from the road. It is surrounded by horticultural areas.
Most likely stood on this site, or in the immediate vicinity, the in 1869 demolished homestead “De Vlotter”. According to information from the “Historische Kring Heemskerk” is the horticulturist house built on the foundations of the former homestead.
Sadly the building is in very bad shape.
For more information (in Dutch): De Vlotter
The door at the backside was open, so I could enter it without any problems.
I looked at the stairs to the first floor of the house. The wood of the stairs was in such a bad condition that I decided not to go upstairs.
The house has electricity. There were even some light bulbs, but I didn’t dare to try one of the light switches. But the fact that the house has electricity means that it must be abandoned not that long ago.
Although abandoned?
Seems that the house has been used by someone to sleep there, which would explain that the door on the backside was open. Not my favourite place to spend a night, but then I do realize that not everyone is so fortunate to have a place to live.
Anyway, I am happy to have been there today and to make some pictures, because any time soon it may indeed not be allowed to go there anymore.