Along the architecture of H.J. Jesse in Katwijk zh.

Architect in Katwijk

Hendrik Johannes Jesse (1860-1943) was born on July 10, 1860, in Zaltbommel, the son of pharmacist Jan Jesse (1825-1904) and Dorothea Angenita Helena van Staveren (1829-1902). He spent his childhood there with two brothers and a sister.

At the age of seventeen, in 1877, Jesse moved to Leiden, aspiring to become an architect. He joined the prominent carpenter and architect Willem Kok (1833-1910) at Pieterskerkgracht 16 in Leiden as a curly-haired boy and took lessons in drawing and descriptive geometry. In the early 1880s, he worked for a year with the Amsterdam architect Gerlof Salm and studied at the Delft Polytechnic School, the predecessor of today’s Delft University of Technology. There he attended lectures with professor of architecture Eugen Gugel, artist Adolf le Comte, and Jacob van der Kloes, professor of building materials. In this way he laid the foundation for his later career as a leading architect in the Leiden region.

The New Church

In 1883, the Katwijk church council announced a competition for a “New Church” on Voorstraat in Katwijk aan Zee. The grand prize was 500 guilders, and Jesse decided to enter a design. He won. This would become his first major building project. Hendrik, then twenty-three years old, asked his mentor, Willem Kok, from Leiden, to guide him. The cruciform church was built in 1886-1887 in the Neo-Dutch Renaissance style and is a technical masterpiece. Despite its large span, the imposing roof rests solely on the walls, without the use of pillars, so that the congregation has an unobstructed view of the pulpit. The church remains a landmark in Katwijk aan Zee.

Voorstraat 46, the home of the Katwijk shipowner Dirk Meerburg (1832-1905) and Adriana van Duijvenbode (1836-1900), was also designed by Jesse and built between April 1888 and January 1889. It is likely that Jesse met his future wife, Anna Adriana Meerburg (1866-1931), daughter of Dirk and Adriana, during this project. The couple married in 1890.

In 1912, Jesse designed a new home on almost the same site, this time for his brother-in-law, Fierman Eduard Meerburg (1859-1942) and Wilhelmina Helders (1862-1950). This building now houses the Katwijk Museum.

Throughout his working life as an architect, Jesse always kept pace with the times and therefore designed in various styles.

Ultimately, Jesse, like many of his colleagues, would completely abandon the Neo-Renaissance style and transition to the Art Nouveau/Jugendstil and Rationalist styles that became popular from 1900 onward. Both movements distanced themselves from the historicizing neo-styles, but while Art Nouveau/Jugendstil still sought to appeal to the viewer’s sensibilities, Rationalist style primarily aimed to showcase the building’s function and structural elements, such as stone arches or iron beams. Jesse frequently applied Art Nouveau stylistic features to residential and commercial buildings, but unfortunately not in Katwijk. Beautiful examples can be seen in Leiden (e.g., on the corner of Breestraat and Maarsmansteeg). In Katwijk, he built more in the Rationalist style, developing his own unique approach over the years.

From the beginning of the twentieth century, Jesse focused primarily on the construction of mansions, villas, and country houses. But he also didn’t shy away from commissions for residential and workers’ houses, such as the “Red Village” (now known in Katwijk as the “Rooie Buurt”). He collaborated extensively with his friend, contractor Reyn Ouwehand, on these projects.

In 1905-1906, Jesse commissioned a lavish villa to his own design for himself and his wife Anna Adriana on what was then Oegstgeest. It was the most striking building of his career, where he fully expressed his signature as a designer. He jokingly called it “the Shack.” It can now be found at Rijnsburgerweg 35 in Leiden. He lived and worked there for much of the rest of his life. During the 1920s and the economic crisis of the 1930s, Jesse continued to design and draw, but little of his work was ever produced.

Jesse died in Leiden in 1943. In the postwar years, there was little interest in the styles in which he designed, but thankfully that has changed; a good reason to get to know this remarkable architect better during this cycling route.

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