A Photo Tour of Amsterdam
Buildings, Houses, Canals, and Street Scenes
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055 – Houses – 284 Herengracht – The van Brienen House – AD1728

Originally built in 1620 for Leonora Hakens, the house was bought in 1728 by David Rutgers and his two sisters Hillegonda and Margaretha who immediately embarked on an extremely ambitious project involving a complete  overhaul, inside and out, of the main house and the addition of a "Rear-House" separated from the main house (which they proceeded to dub the "Fore-House") by a stairwell and a light shaft on top of a formal, one story side entrance hall as shown on this cross-cut design drawing and in this animation.  To top it all off, they spent a considerable fortune on the interiors of the "Fore-" and the rear houses as well, and had a formal garden house built at the rear of what was now left of their narrow but fortunately deep property.  In 1781, upon the death of the last survivor of the Rutgers trio, the house was sold to Arnoldus Johannes van Brienen who, in turn, gave the house in 1782 to his son Willem J. van Brienen who -during the French occupation of Holland- was the mayor of Amsterdam.  In 1933, the van Brienen family donated the house to "de Vereniging Hendrick de Keyser", a non-profit foundation heavily involved in the restoration and upkeep of historic Amsterdam houses under the proviso that the organization keep the property in a pristine condition and open to public view under the name of "The van Brienen House".  Ever since it came into possession of the house, the Hendrick de Keyser Foundation has used it as its headquarters and spent untold man-hours and expenses in bringing it back to its original (1728) glory and beauty.  Please scroll down (past the image below) to links that will take you to 8 additional pictures showing the building's beautiful interior and exterior.

Image 1:  Architectural drawing of front facade done in 1782      Image 2: The rear room of the front house
Image 3:  The hidden door in the rear house "Great Salon" wall     Image 4:  Ah, there's that door!
Image 5:  Here is the salon's entire side wall. See the door now?    Image 6:  Salon wall opposite the fire place wall, next
Image 7:  The Salon's fireplace wall      Image 8:  The Salon's window wall