Attention stone - Federal Building Waalwijk-Besoijen

Federal building Waalwijk-Besoijen (1911-1987) - Grotestraat 202

The bicycle route "On the road in the historical Langstraat" can be found on this website. This bicycle and walking route leads along the 24 attention stones that are located at (disappeared) heritage in the municipality of Waalwijk. The idea 'attention stone' was conceived by Steven Woudstra from Schijndel. There are more than 250 tiles in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the trade union movement was booming in Waalwijk. In April 1901 the R.K. Werkliedenvereniging for Waalwijk and Besoijen 'De Leobond' was founded, later this name was changed to 'R.K. Gildenbond'. In 1910, the church council of St. John's took the lead in building a representative building with janitor's house for the R.K. Guild Union. Made possible
by a gift from Pieter Wijten, the church council purchased the lot west of and owned by Dr. van Gils, with the stipulation that the beer brewery in the garden behind would be vacated. The tobacco factory and cigar factory that stood there were demolished.

Guild Association
On the right side was a bluestone slab with the text: 'First stone laid by Chr. de Wijs, advisor, under pastorship of Jud. Sprangers, 12-8-1910'. The new building of the R.K. Guild Association was opened on May 14, 1911. The architect was Jan van Dijck. The building contained on the first floor a large hall with a balcony and a stage with dressing rooms. The hall was covered with a wooden barrel vault with skylights. In the front was the main entrance on the right with a staircase with a stone staircase, in the middle the café and on the left the library with a separate entrance. Upstairs was an upper room. In 1918, the R.K. Guild Association of Waalwijk and Besoijen was converted back into the 'R.K. Werkliedenvereniging'. Film was on the rise, and to keep 'bad' films out of the Waalwijk area, the so-called 'White Cinema' came into the building in 1920. The condition was that every film had to be approved by the pastor.

Crowned Leersse
The Guild Association sold the building to Anna Sebastiana Christina Havermans of Oosterhout in 1953. Anna was married to Jacobus (Ko) de Nijs, a merchant. On Boxing Day, the renovated Gildenbond café was opened, for the time being under the name "Ko de Nijs. The Waalwijk public was given the opportunity to give a new name. The difficulty was that the name had to apply to both the café and the main hall. The jury was unanimously of the opinion that the name 'De Gecroonde Leersse', submitted by Mr. M. van der Heijden, was the ideal name. The name referred to a play "De verheerlyckte Schoenlappers of de gecroonde Leersse" (1688) by the Flemish writer Michiel de Swaen. In 1966, Elisabeth Maria Aertsen (the widow of Johannes Marinus de Nijs) became the owner and operator. The janitor's house was demolished around that time. In 1987, a fire completely reduced the historic building to ashes and thus disappeared from the street scene.