Zes brouwerijen in Harlingen
Six Historic Breweries in Harlingen –
# 5: Simon Stijlstraat 6
In mid-1666 Pieter Feddes and his wife Dina Tjebbes Dreijer 1 bought a brewery and malt
house on the Wortelhaven, with [a] house and garden to the north, horse stable, and a private
alley to de Lanen [the street and canal a few hundred feet south of their backyard].
The [purchase document] makes no mention of Pieter's profession, but when his widow
sold the complex in 1701, he turns out to have been a master brewer. The whole property is
then touted as "certainly an excellent housing property and with well-established brewery
and malt works" [...] "where the heart is in the gable."
That "heart" is a deer, and the sale of an adjacent property makes it clear that it was a
"white hart." It still adorns the façade, and a er a number of restorations and overpaintings,
fortunately, it has the right color again.
The old street name Wortelhaven indicates that there was also water here. Not [a canal] in
the middle of the street, but facing the gables on the even side. Only on the east side was a
rampart, and there were two wooden bridges to, respectively, this brewery and to the former
Evangelical Lutheran Church.
When it was sold in 1809 it was still a brewery, malt house, and taproom. The latter means
that drinks were also served and sold. This can also be deduced from the description of 1701
("good for business").
It is certainly worth the effort to walk along de Lanen to the back of this building, on the
Sint Christoffelsteeg. There is a beautiful old warehouse at # 1 that belonged to this brewery.
This warehouse is o en claimed to be an old city farm because of the low doors on the
ground floor; downstairs would have been the stable with the living quarters upstairs.
However, the claim is not supported by any documentation nor does it explain the doors. [In
fact] The ground floor shows that it has been used for the storage of loose bulk materials,
namely grain, malt, and perhaps hops. The screeds in the wall indicate where the beam ends
of the floors are.
This is probably one of the oldest preserved buildings in Harlingen.
– Stefan Elsinga, 19 Sep 2016
www.vergetenharlingers.nl
1
Dina Tjebbes Dreyer (ca. 1643-1717) is 1st cousin 10x removed of Barbara Lee Folkertsma.