Lambertus Christiaan Arentsen

Lambertus Christiaan Arentsen was born on 23 June 1915 in Aalten. He grew up in a family in which the transition from textile work to independent enterprise was clearly visible: around 1900 his father, Martinus Johannes Arentsen, was still working as a spinner in Bocholt, but later started a bicycle business and garage in Aalten.

From spinner to bicycle dealer

Martinus Johannes Arentsen (1883–1972) was one of the many Aalten cross-border workers employed in Bocholt’s textile industry around 1900. He worked as a spinner for the Schwartz firm. In 1923 he became the owner of the property at what is now Bredevoortsestraatweg 3. The land register lists him there as a bicycle dealer; the property already included a garage and yard.

The business continued to grow. By 1939 the plot included, besides the house, a garage, workshop and garden. Advertisements from the 1930s show that the Arentsen name was already associated with this location and the bicycle and garage business.

Lambertus takes over the business

Lambertus Christiaan was a son of Martinus Johannes Arentsen and Johanna Geertruida Winkelhorst. In 1952, the land register records Lambertus himself as owner of the business premises, with the occupation bicycle and motor-vehicle repairer. He is described in the same way in 1965. By then, his father’s original bicycle business had developed into Garage Arentsen.

Garage, car hire and car wash

The business was not limited to repairs. Arentsen also hired out cars. At the rear of the site, on the Prinsenstraat side, there was a car wash. Between the car wash and the garage there was still a garden with fruit trees. Over the course of its existence, the complex also functioned as a garage, motor business and filling station.

There was a plan to create a passage between the garage and the rear of the site. This was ultimately not built because there was no successor to the business. The family firm founded by Martinus Arentsen in the 1920s thus came to an end after two generations.

After Garage Arentsen

Lambertus Christiaan Arentsen died on 21 December 1975, aged sixty. In 1977, Catharina Engelina Arentsen-Ros is recorded as owner of the shop-house and workshop. Other businesses later occupied the premises, including Bloemenhuis ‘t Centrum, lingerie shop Mari-Belle and stationery shop Meneer Kees.