Time Travel Pictures: The Gedempte Gracht in Rustenburg (Zaandam)

The C&A still exists, but a lot has changed in about 50 years, such as the cars that were used to drive on the Gedempte Gracht…

Time does not stand still. Construction and demolition are taking place, streets are disappearing, and new neighborhoods are emerging. Stores are leaving, businesses are closing, and green spaces are making way for new construction. The Zan region has changed significantly in recent decades. The hurricane highlights that. We are now taking the “same” photo again in the same place that it was shot in the past. Look for the differences…

This postcard comes from the private collection of Hurricane Editor Pete Packer. Bert Versteeg took the contemporary photo and also provided background information. Today: Gedempte Gracht in Rustenburg in Zaandam.

Gedempte Gracht near Rustenburg

Episode 86 of Time Travel Pictures takes us to the end of Gedempte Gracht in Rustenburg. The old photo is not very old this time and was probably taken in the early 1970s. However, there is hardly any street in Zaandam that has changed as much in 50 years as Gedempet Gracht.

The street was created in 1858 when the ditch between Zilverpad on the south side and Geldeloospad and Kuijperspad (north side) was filled in. They were three relatively old tracks, because Zilverpad received track regulations in 1637 and Kuijperspad, which was also called Seijlpad, in 1645. The earliest known track regulations at Geldeloospad date from 1753, but there were undoubtedly older ones.

The Gedempte Gracht area had always been a fairly normal state, with houses and shops, but that changed on 3 December 1958 when the Beatrix Bridge was opened. At that time, traffic to Provincialeweg could not continue, but it did a few years later. In 1962/1963. The opening of the bridge and the extension of the Gedempte Gracht to Provincialeweg created an important east-west road that also provided access to the city. In 1958, the Coentunnel and Coentunnelweg did not yet exist, and traffic to and from Amsterdam had to pass through Hemponten.

In the 1980s, the sidewalk was replaced with asphalt and only city buses were allowed to drive there. Later, the municipality had another plan and pavilions were built, closing the street to all traffic except pedestrians. Traffic had to find its way through Vinkenstraat. In 2011, the street was restored again, the wings were demolished, and water was restored, after which the street acquired its current appearance.

In the old photo, we see the C&A Store Building in the right foreground, the first pillar of which was raised on 31 January 1969, after which the official opening took place on 17 March 1970 by Alderman Dr. Metslar of Public Works.

The name C&A is an abbreviation of the first names of brothers Clemens and August Brenninkmeyer, “textile workers” from Westphalia, Germany. Totten They were traveling merchants, and in order to avoid having to keep getting new supplies, Clemens and August opened a textile warehouse in Sneek in Friesland in 1841 and soon after their first ready-to-wear shop.

Slowly but surely, more stores have been added to the current number of around 1,400 branches in Europe, of which around 100 are now in the Netherlands. In the early 1970s, more large retail properties were opened in Gedimbet Gracht, such as Hema (February 1969) and V&D (March 1970).

What is unique about the New Zaandam branch is that payment was made by so-called airmail, where the receipt and money or payment check went into a cylinder which was then placed in a tube after which the cylinder was dragged to a place where the payment was processed. The cylinder was removed from the tube again, after which the receipt with any change was sent through the tube.

In 2014, the building was completely renovated, removing the second floor and providing the building with new cladding. To the left of the old photo we see what I believe to be a Ford Cortina, produced between 1962 and 1970, after which the name was changed to the Ford Taunus.

The first building on the left with the yellow Prisma advertising signs was the Weber Jewelry Building, next to the building where the Rentenaar branch would later be built. To the left of the jeweller, a branch of ABN-AMRO Bank will be built around 1985.

Gedempte Gracht with C&A