AUDIO
PUTTING DOWN ROOTS
Audio 2/5
2.
Oosterdijk 26
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AUDIO
Oosterdijk 26
Hermann Gerhard Brenninkmeijer, the eldest son of cofounder Clemens, compiled the history of the company—titled Geschiedenis der firma C&A Brenninkmeijer—shortly before his death in 1906. He described the location where the business had been founded in great detail. According to his account, Clemens and August set up their warehouse on the upper floor of a house located approximately in the middle of the row on the south side of Oosterdijk, bordering a narrow path to the west that did not extend to the parallel street at Kleinzand.
By 1960, those at C&A's Amsterdam headquarters had forgotten this information. The management contacted the Sneek branch in the hope that someone there might know more. In Sneek, people still remembered the site and identified it as located on the south side of the Oosterdijk, just as Hermann Gerhard Brenninkmeijer had done.
Both descriptions refer to a plot of land that, according to land registry records, belonged to Sjoerd Stallinga in 1841. This name also appears in C&A's balance book: he received 150 guilders in annual rent payments—but only from 1842 onward. Sure enough, an entry in the land registry indicates renovations underway in Stallinga's house in 1841.
Could this possibly mean that the owner allowed Clemens and August to set up their warehouse there rent-free during the renovation? It seems more likely that the two brothers did not move here until 1842, after the construction was completed, and in fact founded their company at a completely different location in Sneek: perhaps at what is now Singel 9? Unfortunately, no clear evidence conclusively proves this either.
Today, the Luehof jewelry shop occupies the premises at Oosterdijk 26.