Sint-Antoniusschool and headmasters house

Background information

Public building; original function: school and teacher's residence; current function: youth centre and residential house

 The Sint-Antoniusschool with the teacher's residence dates from 1919. In 1951, it became a girls' school under the new name “Mariaschool”, run by the Sisters of Our Lady, who were based in the old teacher's house (“Ave Maria”). In 1981, the building was transformed into a youth club. In 2002, this characteristic building was designated a national monument.

Description

Most of the building is occupied by the school. It is a single-storey building with high ceilings under a gable roof, the ridge of which runs parallel to the street. The right-hand end has a gable under a perpendicular gable roof. To the left of the school is the protruding residential section, one storey high with a gable and continuing into the last bay of the school wing. The house has a hipped roof with a finial at the rear. The roofs are fitted with gutters on consoles. The whole building is constructed of brick, with the residential and school sections distinguished from each other by the colour of the brick. The facades feature speckled layers in a different colour. A stepped frieze has been added around the gables, between which the elongated facade of a cornice with brick mosaic has been provided, separated at the bottom by a dentil moulding. The façade features four-pane windows with a six-pane transom window; each former classroom has three windows. The relief arch is a slight segmental arch, constructed in red brick with plastered keystones and plastered spandrels. The window sills are made of green glazed brick. In the gable, on the right, there is a composite window under a round arch, the field filled with a polychrome brick mosaic. Below this, a band with the inscription “R.K. SCHOOL ST. ANTONIUS” is visible, made of glazed tiles.

In the porch, there is a plaque with the inscription:

'THROUGH THE DILIGENCE AND LOYALTY OF THE RESIDENTS/THIS GRAND BUILDING WAS CONSTRUCTED/18-11 -1918/14-8-1919/THE BOARD/L.KOPPENS CHAIRMAN L. AARTS SECRETARY H.v.HEUGTEN TREASURER H ‘S WINKELS G. AARTS".

Perpendicular to the rear façade of the school is a single-storey structure with a gable roof covered with hollow tiles. This section (the former gym) has high windows. The layout has been changed. Some elements of the original design, such as the moulded wooden window frames, have been preserved. The living area has T-windows, and the two windows adjacent to the school have skylights with small muntin bars and round arches, the arch fields of which are filled with masonry mosaic, brought together under a single segmental arch. In the gable of the house, the windows are placed under a segmental arch. The entrance, a panelled door, is located in a shallow porch. To the left of it is a three-part window with small upper and lower lights, filled with coloured cathedral glass.

In the side façade, there are T-windows on the ground floor, with a few small windows placed directly under the gutter. Behind the house is a single-storey extension with six-pane windows. A paved square has been laid out in front of the school. There is an old tree on this square. In front of the house is a garden, separated from the schoolyard and the street by a privet hedge.

Appraisal

The school with teacher's house is of general importance because of its cultural-historical value as a representative of a former village school in an early 20th-century parish village and because of the integrity and rarity of the building type. Architectural-historical values include the detailing and use of materials.

Source: Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed