Cunning eighteenth-century businesswomen Maria van Lommen (1688 – 1742) was silversmith Cornelis van Lommen’s (1656 – 1715) and Cornelia Ondermerck’s (1667 – 1724) firstborn out of twelve children. Her father had bought ‘t Glindt in 1700. Here, he had situated his workplace and the gold- and silver shop.

However, in 1712, Cornelis became the erfhuismeester (city auctioneer). According to city regulations, the erfhuismeester was not allowed to also own a store. And so, when Cornelis took the oath, he requested his shop to be left to the 24-year-old Maria.

Business was booming as both Maria and her mother Cornelia were shrewd businesswomen. They were so clever, that even a letter of complaint was sent to the city council! This stated that the ‘joffer and vrou Lommen’ bought the best pieces before the auction was even held. Additionally, they were said to bid so high that the other silversmiths had to simply give up.

After her father’s death on May 27^th 1715, Maria continued the shop with her brother Johannes. And, as Cornelis’ widow, Cornelia could further her late husband’s work as an erfhuismeester. In 1718 she was re-elected and remained in office shortly before her death in 1724 (Bergh-Hoogterp, 2019).

The last wooden front What is particularly remarkable about this building, is something that is now (sadly) missing: the wooden front. Due to the fire hazard this posed and various ‘welfare considerations’, wooden houses but also wooden fronts were gradually forbidden in the seventeenth century. At first, only building them was forbidden, and later the painting and maintenance of them were added to the list. ‘T Glindt maintained its wooden front until 1747, making it the last building to have had a wooden front on the Neude (Dolfin et al, 1989, p. 446) . Fortunately, we still have a pen drawing by G. de Hoog that shows us what this looked like (Fig. 3).

De Zwarte Leeuw, Neude 38

The black lion's adventure The tallest building in the line-up, the one in the middle, also bears a plaque. This one can be seen in the 360 image above, on the very top part of the facade. The plaque is one of a black lion, together with the inscription De Zwarte Leeuw (The Black Lion) (Fig. 4). It was ordered by Pauwels Janss. De Leeuw – who had his house built there in the seventeenth century (Fig. 5). In 1904, the building was furnished as a warehouse to the neighboring sailcloth and sailcover firm Lammerts van Bueren on Neude 39 (Fig. 6). And so, radical changes were made, including the houses' current red color. During this process, however, the plaque got lost and was only retrieved over a century later from a chimney of fort Blauwkapel, located north of the city.

The plaque was found by the unknowing scouting group Charles de Foucould in a demolished building. They took it to Tuindorp. Eventually, Charles de Foucould merged with another scouting group called Willem de Zwijger. Because of this merging – the lion was taken to Blauwkapel. Luckily, archeologist Maarten van Deventer recognized it by chance. Shortly after, it was put back where it came from (Moesman, 1903).

Neude 37

Ring ring! At the start of 1995, Lammerts van Bueren left its Neude establishment. Between this and De Beurs Café taking over the buildings, the municipality was able to do an archeological analysis of the building. To their surprise, they found a wooden construction made up of four sturdy wooden pillars (19cm x 19cm) which seemed to have been the substructure of a 1883 telephone installation by the Nederlandsche Bell Telephoon Maatschappij. Currently, this structure is still located in the office spaces of De Beurs (Holst, 1996, p. 138). Below, you can see what the 'telephone tower' used to look like before it was taken down (Fig. 7).

Sources

• Bergh-Hoogterp, L.E. van. (2019). Lommen, Maria van, in: Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland. Retrieved from: http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/Lomme
• Campen, J.W.C. van; Rientjes, A.E. (1956). 't Glindt. Maandblad van "Oud-Utrecht", 29: 8/9.
• Dolfin, M., Kylstra, E.M., Penders, J. (1989). Utrecht. De huizen binnen de singels. Beschrijving. Zeist: SDU uitgeverij/ Rijksdienst voor de Monumentenzorg.
• Holst, B. (1996). Nijverheid: het begin van de telefonie in Utrecht. Oud-Utrecht, 69:6.
• Moesman, J. (1903). Afbeelding van de gevelsteen 'De Zwarte Leeuw'. [Photograph] Utrechts Archief, Utrecht.