NACO house finally back to Amsterdam after seventeen years in Zaandam
The NACO house can no longer be admired in Amsterdam since 2004. The iconic boathouse behind Central Station will sail back across the IJ today. For years it stood in the Zaanse Achtersluispolder. It has been restored over the past five years. With the help of crowdfunding, we eventually succeeded in preserving the national monument. “It’s unique. You don’t see one like this in Amsterdam or anywhere else in the Netherlands,” says Stella van Heezik of Stadsherstel.
The NACO house was built in 1919 for shipping company Koppe, Stella says: “It is in the style of the Amsterdam School but also with colonial and Scandinavian influences. You can see the blockwood shape in it, for example. It was behind the CS on a jetty. in the IJ and from there pleasure boats departed across the IJ and IJsselmeer to Marken and Volendam.” And not just for fun, because there was also a lot of commercial shipping with freight traffic.
The shipping company’s office was nicknamed the NACO house all the way back in the 1960s. The office was used by the shipping department of the ‘Nederlandsche Auto Car Onderneming’, or NACO. NACO was a public transportation company.
buffalo horns
The colonial influences are very typical for wooden boathouses. The architect was inspired by the Dutch East Indies. “In Sulawesi, the residents decorated their houses at the front with buffalo horns. The richer someone was,” says Stella. Many horns are also present on the NACO house. However, the need for those buffalo horns to be made new. “They were almost all rotten”
The restoration was also by no means an easy task as the NACO cottage was in pretty bad shape and a lot of it was wood. “It is not completely finished because the roof tiles still have to be put on, but we will only do that in Amsterdam because otherwise it will be too heavy for transport on the water,” says Stella.
Museum boat
Also on the inside with the original sales counters, a lot of work still needs to be done. A tenant has already been found for the unique building. And that also had to be arranged first, says Stella. “It will soon be a boarding point for the museum boat that will call at the Hermitage, Artis and the Hortus, among others.”
From 09:00 the NACO house is transported by water. The entire tour can be followed via a live stream on the City’s website. It is expected that the house will be at its destination by 1 p.m.