Photographs of Maastricht

[Clio]

Dit is een gedeeltelijke reconstructie uit Google cache van een uitgebreidere discussie. De foto's ontbreken, maar worden op een later moment misschien nog toegevoegd.
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Riemke schrijft:

Hallo allemaal,

I hope you don’t mind me writing in English, but my Dutch is not good enough to sufficiently explain my problem (I do understand almost everything though, so please feel free to reply in Dutch).

Well, I am a student at Maastricht University and am currently working to archive a couple of photographs of Maastricht from about 1900-1930 I guess. This includes trying to date them as best as I can, which I do according to hints found in the pictures.

In the course of my research I came across this forum and noticed that many of you are pretty good concerning the (architectural) history of Maastricht. That is why I figured that maybe you could give me a hand with some of the photos, or rather with some questions. Unfortunately I do not have digital copies of the images, but I will do my best to describe them if needed.

• There are a number of photos that show the westwork of Onze Lieve Vrouwe Basiliek in a scaffold – which I assume to be due to the construction work by Cuypers. Does anyone of you know when the work on the westwork was done, when the scaffold was there?
  There is another picture (ca 1911) of the eastern-side of the church already finished, but you can see that the westwork is in scaffolds. And in the thread about the Onze Lieve Vrouwe Basiliek there is an image of the not-yet renovated westwork from 1910 - would you say it is thus correct to assume that the scaffold was there from about 1911-1917?
  
  
• I have an image (black and white) of the St-Janskerk and it looks like there is no colour on the tower. And again the OLV with scaffold (westwork) in the background. Does anybody know if there was a period between 1911 and 1917 (if my assumptions concerning question 1 are right) when the tower was not painted? Or does anybody know how/where I could find out about this?
  
  
• Another picture shows the Helpoort and next to it a caravan-like vehicle saying “Compagnie internationale pour le transport de meubles – Arnold Bonhomme – Maastricht Expediteur Liege” – I did find out that there was a Transportbedrijf Arnold Bonhomme or just Bonhomme, that presumably closed in 1938.
  Do you maybe have information about when the company was located near the Helpoort or if this caravan could be any hint at when the picture was taken?

It would be amazing if you had any hints that could help me date these photographs (at least roughly)!

All the best and many thanks already,
Rie

[Clio]

Ingrid M.H. Evers schrijft:

Did you try the local archives? You will find the Regionaal Historisch Centrum Limburg at Pieterstraat 7. The former municipality-archives are located here. More than 45.000 photo's on archive. Better call to find out if mister Boetsen is available when you arrive.

Another possibility is the website www.cultureelerfgoed.nl. If you want to access the 'beeldbank' directly, try http://beeldbank.cultureelerfgoed.nl/ .

You'll find some details on the color of the tower of St.-Janskerk here and here.

[Clio]

Burgemeester:

Hi Riemke,

Welcome on Mestreechonline!

I think we will be able to asnwer some of your questions; a digital copy of the pictures will surely help.

I`m anxious to get home to my books. Everything for science!

[Clio]

El Loco:

The http://beeldbank.cultureelerfgoed.nl/ link posted by Ingrid Evers is probably the most handy one in this case. Just type in "sint-servaas", "onze-lieve-vrouwekerk" or "basiliek" and "helpoort" and you will find loads of pictures that are probably similar - if not identical - to the ones you are researching.

[Clio]

Riemke answered:

Oh wow, you guys are quick! Thanks a lot!

The problem with local archives is that I'm in Berlin at the moment and I'll only get back to Maastricht in September, thank you for the links though!

I work at the Collection of Photography and that's also why it's a bit of a problem for me to just scan the images, as you can't even touch them.. But tomorrow I'll try to at least take a snapshot with my camera and post those - or won't that be any help?

[Clio]

Citaat:
Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Riemke
.. But tomorrow I'll try to at least take a snapshot with my camera and post those - or won't that be any help?

Olijfje: OK, get it done, a bunch of eager beavers are waiting.

Citaat:
Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Riemke
I work at the Collection of Photography and that's also why it's a bit of a problem for me to just scan the images, as you can't even touch them..

El Loco: This is a collection based in Berlin? Oh wow, you got us all excited now!

Ingrid M.H. Evers:
Quite. Would it be possible to tell us which collection? We are all of us dedicated webcrawlers and any new site that contains local pictures are welcomed!

[Clio]

Riemke, citaat:

Do you maybe have information about when the company was located near the Helpoort or if this caravan could be any hint at when the picture was taken?

Burgemeester: Bonhomme didn`t close in 1938. The firm was stil running in 1950, as you can see in this dutch phonebook. I don`t think the caravan leads to a right determination of the picture.

Riemke, citaat:

There are a number of photos that show the westwork of Onze Lieve Vrouwe Basiliek in a scaffold – which I assume to be due to the construction work by Cuypers. Does anyone of you know when the work on the westwork was done, when the scaffold was there?
I can`t find the exact dates when the westwork of the OLV was in scaffolds and I only found one picture of it (in the book: "In beeld... de veel vereeuwigde Slevrouwe"), but unfortunately the date is very uncertain (in dutch: 'rond de twingtigste eeuwwisseling').

Burgemeester: Wait! I overlooked a picture.

Riemke, citaat:

There is another picture (ca 1911) of the eastern-side of the church already finished, but you can see that the westwork is in scaffolds.

Burgemeester: Is this one the same? Again, no date.

[Clio]

Riemke:
Good morning

I don't even know where I got the information that Bonhomme closed in 1938..during my research I even came across images of trucks saying 'Transportbedrijf Bonhomme', but I thought it might be a different one..the son or grandchild or so and they maybe dropped the 'Arnold'

However, here are some of the images (the one of the Oude Brug is a close up as the rest is just sky and water):

Bijgevoegde afbeelding(e) Foto.jpg (94,7 K Foto(3).jpg (93,8 K

[Clio]

Riemke:
and two more

Bijgevoegde afbeelding(e) Foto(2).jpg (93,3 K Foto(1).jpg (84,4 K

[Clio]

Riemke:

oh, the collection is the Art Library's Collection of Photography (Kunstbibliothek Sammlung für Fotografie):
http://www.smb.museum/smb/sammlungen...=6582&n=1&r=14

sorry for the spam!

[Clio]

Burgemeester:

Great!

It seems to me they all have been made at the same time (same photographer?) because of the OLV in scaffolds. The only picture were we can`t see the OLV is the one with the Helpoort.

To start with that last one.... The old slaughterhouse (demolished in 1904) is not present anymore. Here you can see it in a different picture. The Jekertoren seems to be renovated, and that was done in 1911. I don`t know what that strange castle-like thing in front of the building to the right is...

The picture of the St. Janskerk is taken before 1930. You can clearly see the long pinnacles Cuypers put on the church. These were shortened during a restauration in 1930. Another cue might be the absence of a building to the south of the westwork of the St. Servaas. In a different thread, Ingrid and El Loco were discussing the possibility that this building was used for grain storage known as`t Spijker. I don`t know when this building was broken down. Another picture of this building can be found further down the thread, so keep scrolling down!

Also, the picture of the Old Maasbrug was taken before 1932. The iron fence along the bridge was demolished in that year, and replaced by stone. You can also see a huge telephonepost (exactly in the middle of the picture). But again, I don`t know when these were torn down.


References:

Evers & Ubachs, Historische Enclycopedie Maastricht.
Regis de la Haye, De Maas Over.
L.L Minis, De St. Janskerk (Maastricht Silhouet)

[Clio]

El Loco:

I cannot say much about the Helpoort photo but the other three photographs can be definitely dated around 1911-1917, as you already suggested in your first post, which is indeed the time of the restoration of the westwork of Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk. The photo with the old bridge depicts the old high roof between the two towers of the westwork, and thus must be the oldest of those three photographs (the roof was lowered by Cuypers during this restoration campaign). The "Autogarage Central" on Kesselskade could be a further indicator but I have no information on that. Burgemeester mesjiens?

Edit: I have to retract the above statement. The Maas bridge photo might be quite a bit older. Read on below.

Bijgevoegde afbeelding(e)
OLV-1893HighRoof.jpg (84,6 KB )
OLV-1917LowRoof.jpg (45,5 KB )
OLV-1913Cloisters.jpg (69,4 KB )
OLV-1915Restoration.jpg (75,2 KB )

[Clio]

Citaat:
Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door El Loco
The "Autogarage Central" on Kesselskade could be a further indicator but I have no information on that. Burgemeester mesjiens?

Burgemeester:

I already checked that out in my very small collection of books and couldn`t find anything about it. Maybe the addressbooks of Maastricht -which can be found in the public library, Centre Ceramique- will help you further.

By the way, Loco: I never knew that Cuypers had lowered the roof. Thanks for the information!

[Clio]

Auto-garage-Central (as they wrote themselves)

Considering any information worthwhile: in 1915 this garage was still located in the Kapoenstraat, as she did for many years before (based on advertisements local papers in digital form). So the picture dates from later.

[Clio]

foto Helpoort

Citaat:
Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door burgemeester
The Jekertoren seems to be renovated, and that was done in 1911. I don`t know what that strange castle-like thing in front of the building to the right is...

Ingrid M.H. Evers:

I seem to remember this edifice was a public watering place in tune with the historical environment, but I won't bet the ranch on it.