De Witte Hoogt
The Witte Hoogt[1] is a Dutch estate and municipal monument located in Rijksdorp, nestled within the Wassenaar dunes in the municipality of Wassenaar in the Netherlands. The Witte Hoogt was featured in the Christmas issue of Houses & Gardens in Germany in 2023.
Estate
The house was designed in 1925 by the architect A.H. Wegerif to serve as a residence and office, influenced by the functionalism of the Interwar period. The exterior brick walls were rendered with Portland cement and painted white. The windows are framed with what are called 'daystukken,' enriched with characteristic block lists typical of Wegerif.
The layout is largely original, retaining many of its original features.
On the grounds, there are various structures: the forest house "Skovly", a Cape Dutch outbuilding with a folly resembling an Alpine house, a coffee house in Chalet style, an African hut, a dovecote, chicken and horse stables, bunkers and a garage combined with a coach house/harness room with an upper floor.
There is also a deer park which is currently used for horses.
The estate has two entrances on Meijboomlaan and one entrance on Laan Van Rhemen van Rhemenshuizen, with a pedestrian gate leading to the road to the beach, the Wassenaarse Slag.
The main building sits on the highest point of the terrain, and the central section aligns with the axis of Van der Doeslaan. Even the gate on the street, at the bend of Van der Doeslaan-Meijboomlaan, is symmetrically placed along this axis.
As well as the buildings, the grounds include: deciduous and pine forests, dunes, forest paths, roads, riding arenas, paddocks, gardens, terraces and ponds. Due to the grounds bordering two nature reserves and encompassing two biotopes, there is an abundance of diverse wildlife and birdlife including roe deer, foxes, predatory, song, and seabirds.
Location
The Witte Hoogt sits in Rijksdorp[2], nestled within the Wassenaar dunes. Rijksdorp[3], a part of Wassenaar, owes its name to the 17th-century estate Rijxdorp designed by the famous architect Pieter Post.
History
Circa 1920 the first villas resembling estates were built in the area, including the adjacent Del Court van Krimpen Villa and De Witte Hoogt.
From 1988 to 2016, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) was located here. The Del Court van Krimpen Villa is currently temporarily used pending its new destination. De Witte Hoogt is a municipal monument.
During World War II, the Witte Hoogt was confiscated by the Germans. Bunker complexes were built in Rijksdorp to withstand a potential Allied attack. The Germans considered the area suitable for headquarters due to the trees and low groundwater level. In 1942, all residents were evacuated. An extensive bunker complex was to be constructed adjacent to the Witte Hoogt. The concrete bunkers had walls with a thickness of two meters or more and were mostly buried. After World War II, the Chief of the Air Staff chose Rijksdorp as the "wartime Headquarters." Trenches and machine gun posts can still be identified on the Witte Hoogt grounds. The Witte Hoogt was designed and used as an office (Meijboomlaan 6) and a residence (Meijboomlaan 4), which continues to be its purpose. A redevelopment into the hotel "Huize de Witte Hoogt" and luxury tea garden ("elegant boarding house with a tea room") was never completed.
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In 2017, there were discussions about relocating the Persian Garden, featuring tile panels by the world-renowned Marie Balian (previously situated behind the Del Court van Krimpen Villa) to the grounds of the Witte Hoogt. Subsequently, it was decided in consultation with the municipality to relocate the Persian Garden next to the former Valkenburg airbase's nature and recreation area and open it to the public.
This article "De Witte Hoogt" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:De Witte Hoogt. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
- ↑ "De Witte Hoogt", Wikipedia (in Nederlands), 2023-11-18, retrieved 2023-11-18
- ↑ "Bunkercomplex Rijksdorp". Erfgoedhuis Zuid-Holland (in Nederlands). Retrieved 2023-11-18.
- ↑ "Rijksdorp". Bunkers in Wassenaar (in Nederlands). 2018-09-26. Retrieved 2023-11-18.
