B&B HV40 › The house
The story of Haven 40
A house full of stories
A shipowner, two mayors, a quarantine doctor, floods and more than seventy years of family doctors. This is the story of the house you sleep in.
1868today
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A shipowner’s house with the ships at the door
In 1868, a prominent family of shipowners and shipbuilders builds a stately house on the harbour of Maassluis. Number 40 does not exist yet: under the old numbering the address is first Haven B95, later Haven B 40.
Maassluis is on the move. The town is becoming the home port of pilots, fishermen and tugboats, and nearby the Nieuwe Waterweg is being dug. In 1872 it gives Rotterdam a direct route to the sea, and Maassluis lies right on it.
Tugboats in the harbour of Maassluis.
An address of standing
In the 1890s, shipowner Uittenboogaard lives on the harbour. In the same years, two mayors of Maassluis live in the house: R.Ph.A. van Rees, mayor from 1892 to 1894, and W. Lotsy, mayor from 1894 to 1896.
Those who lived here ran the town or sent its ships to sea. And towards the end of the century, a new kind of resident arrives: the doctor. Dr W. van der Starp practises here until his death in 1908.
The Haven of Maassluis around 1900, on a postcard by publisher J. Waltman.
Doctor Thiebout watched the fishing boats
In 1901, Dr W. Thiebout opens his practice on the harbour. He stays for more than 35 years, until 1937. From his consulting room he looks out on the loggers, the fishing boats that left Maassluis for weeks at sea.
A sick fisherman on board was a burden for the whole crew, sometimes for four to six weeks. The shipowners therefore asked for a medical check before departure, and Dr Thiebout’s name soon came up. He knew the shipowners and the fishermen. Maassluis then had some 9,000 inhabitants, four family doctors and one pharmacy.
Whoever pretended to be ill sailed anyway. Whoever was truly ill, the doctor kept ashore.
After a story in the Historische Schetsen of the Historische Vereniging Maassluis.
The yellow flag at the masthead
In the spring of 1904, a Royal Decree gives Dr Thiebout a second task. He must examine the health of every ship arriving in Maassluis from sea. He also runs the quarantine station at the Amersgat, with the disinfection ship moored there.
Ships from distant ports came up the Waterweg flying the yellow Q flag. Thiebout climbed aboard to examine the crew. If an infectious disease was suspected, the ship had to turn back to the state quarantine station at Poortershaven, between Maassluis and Hook of Holland. There the sick were isolated and the ship disinfected.
The Dutch medical journal called him the “most zealous quarantine doctor”. He complained repeatedly that he was given too little time for a proper examination. Only on 1 August 1925 did the quarantine service move to Rotterdam.
Sources: newspaper notice of 29 April 1904 and the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde.
Sailing a toy boat down the hallway
Living on the harbour came at a price. In a heavy north-westerly storm the tide surged in. First came the hammering of the flood boards being fixed across the doors, then the water rose, sometimes as high as a metre.
A former resident of Haven 40 later remembered how the wind blew the water under the front door and down the hallway. The floor covering in the rooms bulged, the piano was lifted onto piles of newspapers and the cellar filled up. Meanwhile the children sailed a toy boat down the hallway.
“A little boat you could sail inside your own house!”
And the doctor? When the water was high, Dr Thiebout could not leave his house with dry feet. A rowing boat came to pick him up so he could visit his patients.
After memories published in the Historische Schetsen of the Historische Vereniging Maassluis.
Who held surgery here?
In 1937 Dr Thiebout says farewell: a widely respected and much-loved family doctor, for years the confidant of countless people in Maassluis. His farewell reception is packed. After him, Haven 40 remains a doctor’s practice and home. One doctor follows another until well into the 1970s. Generations of local people sat in this waiting room.
- Dr Van der Starpuntil 1908
- Dr W. Thiebout1901–1937
- Dr W.A.H. de Wilde1943–1952
- Dr B.D. Elsman1957–1968
- Dr Blaman1965
- Dr J. Smeijers1968–1975
- Dr L.C. Roekx1978
January 1968
A queue all the way into the Hoogstraat
When Dr B.D. Elsman and his family left Maassluis in January 1968, the seamen’s home was too small. Hundreds of local people came to say goodbye, and the queue stretched out into the Hoogstraat.
His patients had collected more than 3,400 guilders. Among other gifts, Elsman received an outboard motor, a fishing rod, a toolbox and a record player with records. He had, he said, spent ten wonderful years in Maassluis. That evening his successor Dr Smeijers and his wife were given a warm welcome and showered with flowers.
From consulting room to bedroom
In 2020, Haven 40 opens its doors as a B&B. The past lives on in the names of the rooms: De Praktijk (The Practice) on the ground floor and De Wachtkamer (The Waiting Room) on the first floor. The enamel “Praktijk” sign still hangs in the house.
All residents at a glance
- 1868
A prominent family of shipowners and shipbuilders builds the house on the harbour. Under the old numbering it is first Haven B95, later Haven B 40.
- 1892–1896
Shipowner Uittenboogaard lives on the harbour. In these years, mayor R.P.A. van Rees also lives in the house.
- 1896–1900
Residents include mayor R.Ph.A. van Rees (mayor 1892–1894), mayor W. Lotsy (1894–1896) and physician Dr W. van der Starp.
- 1901
Dr W. Thiebout opens his general practice here.
- 1904
By Royal Decree, Dr Thiebout is made responsible for the health inspection of ships arriving in Maassluis from sea, and for the quarantine station at the Amersgat.
- 1908
Dr W. van der Starp dies.
- 1925
On 1 August, the quarantine service moves from Maassluis to Rotterdam.
- 1926–1934
Besides Dr Thiebout, H. Kosters and S. Herger also live in the house.
- 1937
After more than 35 years, Dr Thiebout says farewell. His farewell reception is packed.
- 1943
M. Dirkzwager lives in the house. Dr W.A.H. de Wilde opens his practice here, which he runs until 1952.
- 1957–1968
Dr B.D. Elsman. At his farewell in January 1968, hundreds of local people queue to say goodbye.
- 1965
Dr Blaman.
- 1968–1975
Dr J. Smeijers.
- 1978
Dr L.C. Roekx.
- 2020
The house opens as B&B HV40, with the rooms De Praktijk (The Practice) and De Wachtkamer (The Waiting Room).
This list is not yet complete. Do you know more about Haven 40, or do you have old photos of the house? We would love to hear from you.
Sources: Historische Vereniging Maassluis (image bank and Historische Schetsen), Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde, historic newspapers (including Trouw / De Rotterdammer, 1968, via the Schiedam municipal archive) and the house’s list of residents. Historic photos: including the collection of the Historische Vereniging Maassluis. Portrait of mayor Van Rees: Henk Fortuin, © Stichting Henk Fortuin.