Groenendaal Park facts for kids
Groenendaal Park is a beautiful green space located right in the middle of Heemstede, a town in the Netherlands. This park includes land that once belonged to old country estates like Bosbeek and Meer en Berg. On its western side, you'll find other historic estates such as Hartekamp, Huis te Manpad, and Iepenrode. To the east, the park is next to the city cemetery.
Park History and Design
In the 1600s, the area where Groenendaal Park now stands was mostly covered in sand dunes. People dug up this sand and sold it to boats, which then carried it to Amsterdam to be used for building houses and other structures. After the sand was removed, the flat land was used for drying and bleaching linen fabric. Later, these fields became famous for growing tulip bulbs.
During the "tulip craze," a time when tulips were incredibly popular and expensive, wealthy merchants from Amsterdam bought land in the Haarlem and Heemstede areas to build their summer homes. Groenendaal Park is located on what was once the summer estate of a rich Amsterdam banker named Jan Hope. His estate, called Bosbeek, was one of the very first large gardens in the Netherlands to be designed in the 'English Style' during the 1700s. This style focused on natural-looking landscapes rather than formal, geometric designs.
The park's land is part of a long, sandy ridge covered in deciduous trees (trees that lose their leaves in autumn). This ridge stretches in a straight line from The Hague all the way to Alkmaar. Jan Hope himself designed the park in 1760, and it stayed in his family for three generations. In 1913, the town of Heemstede bought the park, making it a public space for everyone to enjoy. Groenendaal Park has also hosted two big international flower shows, called Flora, in 1935 and 1953.
The Amazing Steam Engine
Jan Hope did something very unusual in 1781. He installed the first steam engine ever used for a garden at the site of the windmill in Groenendaal. This was special because it worked differently from most Dutch windmills. Usually, windmills in the Netherlands are used to pump water out of low-lying areas to keep them dry. But Jan Hope wanted to pump water into his estate. He needed water to help the unique plants and trees he was growing in the dry, sandy soil.
First, he built a small windmill, much like the one you can see there today. But then he heard about the powerful new steam engines. He wrote to famous engineers James Watt and Matthew Boulton to order an improved version of the Newcomen engine. When the large, red copper boiler for the engine arrived, it was installed by a man named Rinse Lieve Brouwer.
Around 1850, the steam engine broke down, and its copper boiler was sold for scrap metal. This steam engine had two main purposes. One was to pump water for the garden. The other was to be an attraction itself! In the 1700s, garden owners would go to great lengths to decorate their gardens and add interesting features to attract visitors.
However, the steam engine at Groenendaal became less of a unique attraction when the huge Cruquius steam engine mill was built nearby. In 1850, the Cruquius mill, along with two other large mills, took three years to pump all the water out of the massive Haarlem Lake, creating new land.
Images for kids
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A map of Groenendaal park from the 1950s.
