Photo: www.gooienvechthistorisch.nl (SAGV077)
Nineteenth century
Country estates and villa parks
In the long nineteenth century, which started around 1800 and ended with the First World War, the development of Hilversum only got underway. The construction of roads in the first half of the century, such as the Weg van ‘s-Graveland to Soestdijk and the Utrechtseweg, made the village more accessible. Ribbon development arose along these roads. Free heath, forest and agricultural lands were used for the construction of country estates and country estates. Here the rich Amsterdammers exchanged the smelly city for clean air in the summer. A number of large estates and country estates were further subdivided into spacious villa parks at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Commuters
With the opening of the station on the Oosterspoorlijn in 1874, development took off enormously. The country estates were now permanently inhabited and their owners became the first commuters. The relatively large numbers of villas and country houses from the second half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century bear witness to this development. A second stream of commuters arose shortly after 1900. This was a middle class that could afford to live outside and travel daily to work in Amsterdam. This led to the construction of middle-class neighbourhoods, mainly south of the center.
Workers
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the textile industry had supplanted the agricultural sector. Dozens of factories sprung up in the center and in the east and west of the village. Farmers made extra money in the textile factories. The industrial revolution gave rise to larger carpet factories, especially along the Groest and adjacent streets. Related industries also settled in Hilversum, especially east of the railway. The first working-class district appeared here at the end of the nineteenth century.
Architecture
The wealthy new inhabitants often had their country estates, country houses and villas designed and built by well-known architects. Gosschalk, Abr. Salm, the Van Gendt brothers, J.H. Slot, De Bazel and Berlage, all have built one or more palaces in Hilversum. A large part of Johan Hanrath’s oeuvre can be found in Hilversum. Well-known names such as Tersteeg, Springer or Copijn were responsible for garden designs. Pierre Cuypers designed the neo-Gothic Vitus Church on Emmastraat, whose church tower is one of the four highest in the Netherlands.
Urban planning
The Housing Act of 1901 had to put an end to dilapidation and the poor hygienic conditions of the working-class neighborhoods and set quality requirements for new homes to be built. Municipalities were obliged to draw up expansion plans that could be tested against this. Hilversum grew considerably, but without an overarching plan and was parceled out irregularly. Municipal architect Piet Andriessen made an initial expansion plan, but implementation was not forthcoming. It was his successor W.M. Dudok who would determine the urban development of Hilversum from 1915 until well into the twentieth century.