Museum house Villa Rams Woerthe - Steenwijk

In the stream valley of the then Steenwijker Aa, the Steenwijk mayor Ram owned some grazing land, also known as ‘woerthen’, at the end of the 18th century. In 1897, Steenwijk entrepreneur Jan Hendrik Tromp Meesters bought over land from the municipality of Steenwijk and the old Steenwijker Aa was dammed up. Tromp Meesters then wrote a competition for the design of a villa. The winner was Adolf Leonard van Gendt, best known as the architect of many large buildings in Amsterdam, such as the Royal Concertgebouw, the Stadsschouwburg and the station hall of the Central Station (with Pierre J.H. Cuypers).

The villa, asymmetrical in many details, was completed in 1899 and is one of the finest and most intact Jugendstil buildings in the Netherlands. The park was designed by Hendrik Copijn. In the landscape-style park, Copijn had mature trees replanted from elsewhere, as Tromp Meesters did not want to face a park-in-the-growth.

In the museum, you are told much more about the construction and its inhabitants. You marvel at the beautiful halls, decorated in original style and with large paintings on the walls. With fun games, children can fully experience what it is like to live in such a villa, for example by baking pies in the kitchen!