Overview
At Stationsstraat 45 in Aalten stands a large house in the Amsterdam School style. It was built for A.H.W. Bulten, who also established his seed business there.
This substantial house, formerly incorporating a shop and warehouse, was built in 1929 for A.H.W. Bulten, owner of a seed business and florist’s in Aalten. Compared with the neighbouring buildings, it looks strikingly modern, with its bold asymmetrical form and large windows. Although the window frames have been altered, the building’s main form remains largely intact. Its distinctive appearance is emphasised by its position among more traditionally designed houses. It also lies more or less on the sightline of Piet Heinstraat opposite.
Amsterdam School
Many pupils of the former CSA who took art history as an optional subject sat on the pavement in front of Stationsstraat 45 with a sketchpad. In this way they learned to recognise the Amsterdam School style in Aalten — a style that began around 1910 in an exuberant, rich and decorative form and had become much more restrained by 1940.
That change had already begun by the time Stationsstraat 45 was designed in 1929, shortly after the Wall Street Crash. Elaborate architectural decoration became too expensive, so detailing and form grew much simpler. Much of what had typified the Amsterdam School — sculpture, wrought ironwork and decorative brickwork — disappeared, while its strong straight lines remained. But it is also worth looking at number 43. Before seed merchant A.H.W. (Henk) Bulten had number 45 built, he lived next door, where he had two sculptures placed on the roof.
Stationsstraat 45
The front section of Stationsstraat 45 has a volume of almost 1,100 m³. The reason it is so large is that business use was planned from the outset. At the front right was a flower shop; further back on the left, behind two tall doors, was the warehouse, two storeys high and fitted with a mechanical lift.
Turnover grew so rapidly — during the Depression, many people throughout the Netherlands began growing their own vegetables because buying food had become too expensive — that the building was effectively too small almost as soon as it was completed. Four large extensions were therefore added before 1960. On an aerial photograph from around 1955, the final extension is not yet visible: the extension of an attic floor over the front half of the eventual seed warehouse towards the central mixing tower.
The flower shop was soon converted into an office and the blue doors became garage doors. Above them was a large principal bedroom with generous cupboards and a luxurious washing area. The upper floor contained attic space, a library and another hobby room.
In 1963, the house was extensively remodelled. Among other changes, the window frames were replaced and the rounded front door was made square. By then Ad was living in the house, while his father Henk had moved back to number 43.
War years
During the Second World War, the house was requisitioned by the Germans. The four members of the Bulten family were not evicted, but were allowed to live in the office and in the walk-in bank vault used to store valuable seed. This did not stop Henk from secretly listening to Radio Oranje, which led to some tense moments. The neighbours at number 47, the Van Gelder family, including their son Sallo, also had to act quickly on one occasion: they smashed a window to escape the Gestapo, who had come to the front of their house to take them away for deportation.
During the bombing raid on Dijkstraat and Stationsstraat on 24 March 1945, the house was also struck by a bomb, reportedly just around the corner beyond the garage doors.
Another account says that Ad ran outside after a German officer who was billeted in the house because loud explosions could be heard in Dijkstraat. As soon as the back door opened, the officer was hit by shell fragments and fell backwards into Ad’s arms. The only physical evidence said to remain was the rear wall of the warehouse, which was riddled with bullet and shrapnel damage. According to the story, a German convoy containing several ambulances had stopped nearby. Some of those ambulances were standing on the railway crossing near Hotel De Kroon. A barrier reportedly fell onto one of the ambulances, either because of high winds or sabotage, causing it to explode because ammunition was being carried inside. A chain reaction of explosions followed, damaging numerous buildings in the area.
Ad’s son, among others, would like to see this story, which he heard from his father, confirmed by people with specialist knowledge. Do you have more information? Please let us know.
Bulten Seeds
The company’s history began in 1888, when Adriaan Hendrik Bulten founded a tree nursery and seed business. In the population register he was then recorded as a gardener. He started trading by walking with a wheelbarrow to places including the large market in Bocholt. In time this developed into a wholesale business that did not sell directly to private customers. A tree nursery and a flower and crop-protection business also developed alongside it.
The company continued to grow over the years. Seeds were sold throughout the Netherlands through a large network of agents. From the 1960s onwards, Bulten Zaden Aalten became a familiar name nationally, not only because it had more than 1,800 resellers across the country, but also because large gardening departments appeared in V&D department stores during the 1960s and 1970s, with as much as eight metres of display space for Bulten seed racks, miniature gardens and pre-sown seed mats.
The company became one of the larger retail seed suppliers in the Netherlands, selling a wide range of flower, vegetable and herb seeds. Later it began producing biodegradable seed paper, an unusual innovation in the history of seed products.
During the 1970s, swimming pools were also sold through Bulten Sport Import, known through NCRV television programmes such as Zeskamp and Spel zonder grenzen. For many years, every live broadcast was brightened up by a swimming pool from the stock at Stationsstraat 45.
Bulten Zaden was taken over in 1994 and moved to Gaanderen in 2000.
Residents
1934 address directory
Aalten A91/1 > Stationsstraat 45
A.H.W. Bulten
1967 address directory
Stationsstraat 45
A.H. Bulten
Owners
This overview is not complete.
| Year | Plot | Owner | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| m² |