|
Jumbo Dancing, office Gelderman & Zn This building I found on the same trip as the coach-house in abandoned:oldenzaal. It looks empty and has not seen much maintenance the past few years. |
 The new-looking sign says "het huishouden van Jan Steen", it's the name of the last user of the building, a 'grand cafe'. It was only open for a very short time. |
| Doing some research (housemate from Oldenzaal and internet) I found
out it was the office building of the Gelderman textile factory. Below an old drawing of the factory. I found this picture with a lot of other information about the factory on the website of historisch centrum Overijssel |
.jpg) H. P. Gelderman & Zn. Compare photo above with building in lower right corner. Picture from historisch centrum Overijssel. |
| Some history from above mentioned website: The company was founded in 1817. In those days spinning and weaving was a house industry done by the farmers for some extra income. In 1860 the industrial revolution came and a spinning factory was build, driven by steam. Gelderman expanded and became the mayor employer in Oldenzaal and surroundings. In the following years the company was blooming. A lot of the product were sold in the former Dutch East-Indië (now Indonesia). The textile strikes in the twenties and thirties and the economic depression announced new times. Gelderman and other manufacturers started to talk with the unions. In spite of the difficult times for the textile industry in Twente in the 1960ties Gelderman survived. On January 2 1970 it is announced H.P. Gelderman & Zonen would merge with Nijverdal-Ten Cate, another textile company in Twente. The factory in Oldenzaal stayed in operation, so no workers got fired. However in 1978 it becomes clear that Nijverdal-Ten Cate too would shut down. That was the definitive end of the company, it closed down in 1981. |
| Most of the factory burned down in
1987, even now remembered as the big "Gelderman fire". Besides
the office building and a small factory hall right across the railroad
tracks nothing is left of the factory. It's space has been filled
in with other small companies. The office building has been used by several discotheques, but never with much success. Firstly as "de Jumbo". Metallica performed there in 1984. Then after a very expensive rebuilding the name changed to "4-East". For a short period it was known as a great place to party, being called "de iT van het oosten". There was even a special busline from Amsterdam to Oldenzaal. This lasted only a few months however, then visitor levels started to dwindle again. |
 Jumbo
Dancing Flyer (thanks to Adrian Groeneveld, for keeping it out of nostalgic reasons and sending me a digital scan) |
|
One last attempt was made in 2000.
|
 A
flyer promoting the opening |
2-2-2002 Entering the terrain was not so difficult, the fence
was open. I did have to enter in front of a busy road, so I played
innocent photographer and hoped no paranoid civilian would call
the police. |
 Building from the roadside. Even in sunlight it looks a bit dreary. |
| There's a small tunnel under the railroad track which once connect the office terrain with the rest of the factory. Later it was used by disco visitors, when the factory hall on the other side was used as a parking garage. It seems that for some reason they stopped using it and the tunnel was blocked. |
 Blocked tunnel. The sign says "DE TUNNEL IS GESLOTEN U WORDT mbv EEN BUSJE NAAR DE PARKEER ... " (The tunnel is closed. You will be brought to the parking .. by bus) (some of the sign is missing). |
 A picture into the tunnel taken through the fence. |
Getting into the building was easy. Someone had broken open the emergency doors on top of the emergency stairs on the railroad-side of the building. It is something I have been thinking about. Vandalists and thieves throw in windows or destroy locks on doors. I don't agree with those methods, but I'm always eager to use the entryways they created to get into some building. |
 My way in, the door is wide open. Look at the windows, they are walled of on the inside. |
|
It was a bit scary inside. Coming from bright sunlight
into an almost completely dark building I didn't see much for what
seemed like a very long time (it was only 5 minutes are so). I remembered
the fence was open, so it wasn't too unlikely someone was in the
building. And there was the wind, repeatedly trying to bang the
outer door shut. |
 'Nooduigang' translates as 'emergency onionway'. :-) The writer probably meant 'nooduitgang' with a 'T' meaning emergency exit. It supports my theory about the average intellect of spray-painters. |
 |
The first floor of the building, where I had entered, consisted mostly of bars. |
|
|
An
empty bottle of apple juice. Those mirrors were real funny, especially
when I unexpectedly saw a reflection of myself.
