Sleeswijckhuis

Close to the market square, on the main street of Workum, lies the building Noard 5. The main street consists of two rows of houses on either side of the Wijmerts canal, which was filled in 1875 and once connected to the Zuiderzee.
The residential history of the house is only known from 1749 onwards. However, the gable stone indicates it was built in 1663.

In 1792, the house was sold to Daniel Bonifatius de Haer, who had owned the neighboring property Noard 3 since 1785. He used Noard 5 as a coach house, stable, and servants’ quarters, which involved major renovations. The building remained a coach house until 1933.

The facade shows a remarkable combination of a stepped gable and pilaster divisions. The pilasters are richly decorated with carved festoons supplied by a sculptor from Leeuwarden. In 1792, large stable doors were installed, which were removed during the 1985 restoration. The central pilasters were extended but left undecorated, making the difference between old and new visible.

Originally, behind the facade was the front house with a cellar under the side room on the right. Behind that were an inner hearth and a back room with a hallway. The two living areas, each with its own fireplace, were separated by bedstead walls on either side.

When the building was purchased by the Hendrick de Keyser Association, the front part was arranged as a coach house and the rear part as a stable with a feed gutter along the walls. The ground floor beam layer is made of pine wood and rests on simple, profiled corbels. During restoration, many remnants of tiled dados were found along the walls.

In 2015, the original bedstead wall from Noard 3 was installed in this building.

For more information, see “Huizen in Nederland”, Part I Friesland and Noord-Holland, pp. 147-150, and the Hendrick de Keyser Association Annual Report 97 (2015), p. 20.