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De Kapel
1898 / A. Salm

‘s-Gravelandseweg 144

De Kapel was designed in 1898 as a coach house by architect Abraham Salm (1857-1915) in the style of a Swiss chalet with special classicist details. The house belonged to the Quatre Bras estate of owner and client Geert van Mesdag (1863-1939). The coach house was decommissioned in 1932 and taken into use in 1953 by the Remonstrant community. Today, the former coach house is used as a church building for the Liberal Faith Community Hilversum under the name ‘De Kapel’. The building was designated a national monument in 2002.

Design

The coach house was built entirely from black painted horizontal pine parts. The house has a very varied design, with loggias, balconies and a far overhanging roof. The floor plan was shaped like a Greek cross. Downstairs was a carriage garage with horse boxes, upstairs was a coachman’s house and a hayloft. The woodwork has a variety of refined, carved classicist details, including cornices and segment arches. A richly decorated wooden frieze has been installed in the facade surface at the height of the floor division. Cut-out images of horses can be seen in this, referring to its function as a coach house.

Client Geert van Mesdag

In 1898 Geert van Mesdag (1863-1939) moved into the Jugendstil villa Quatre Bras on the estate of the same name. Between 1915 and 1919 he was a member of the Hilversum City Council. After his death, Mayor Lambooy of Hilversum commemorated him with the following words: “One of the noblest citizens of Hilversum has passed away. Mr. van Mesdag has done good all his life. Where there was a need he wanted to alleviate it, he sensed the sorrow and he worked inspiringly. He rest in peace.”

Architect Abraham Salm

A. (Abraham) Salm GBzn started working in 1880 at the architectural firm of his father Gerlof Bartholomeus (1831-1897) in Amsterdam. Father and son built a lot, especially in Amsterdam: banks, factories, tram stations, churches, synagogues, bridges, villas, shophouses, various buildings for Artis, a crematorium and a theatre. Son Abraham settled in Hilversum in 1894 in villa Beau Regard on the Jacobus Pennweg. In Hilversum he designed several villas, residential and coach houses, often in an eclectic architectural style. In his later life Salm took a prominent place within the Society for the Promotion of Architecture, of which he was chairman from 1898 to 1912.

De Kapel

The villa Quatre Bras was demolished in 1938. Since 1957, the park flats of W.M. dudok. The Remonstrant municipality of Hilversum, founded in 1942, bought the former coach house in 1953, which then housed a car garage. They converted the coach house into a chapel internally. The upper floor was used as a sexton’s house. On March 24, 1957, the building was inaugurated as a Remonstrant Chapel and has since been used for church services, concerts and lectures. In 2005 the building was again radically renovated, but the exterior remained largely unchanged.