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The House of Strijland
According to the oldest preserved “veldboek”, from 1599 of Schouwen, farmer Jan Leendertszoon lived here.
Around 1690, the Amsterdam merchant Marinus de Jonge completely rebuilt Strijland House into the country estate ‘t Huys Grol.
GROL, as Marinus de Jonge called his country house around 1690, means ‘green’. ‘Grol’ as an old Dutch name for ‘green’ is also found in ‘Grollo’ as an old name for the town of Groenlo.
In 1804, ‘t Huys Grol was largely demolished and rebuilt on the foundations. A plaque at the back of the house reads: “Adriana Jobina Tromp, de eerste steen gelegt den 12 juny 1804.” [Adriana Jobina Tromp, the foundation stone laid the 12th of June 1804]
Later, the large landowner Jacob Hoogenboom came to live in Huize Grol. When he became mayor of Renesse 17 years later, he had ‘t Huys Grol thoroughly renovated in 1870. At the front, an impressive mansion was built in a manner befitting a mayor. The rear of Huys Grol remained largely intact. He also had the beautiful wrought-iron fence made by the blacksmith from Renesse Gilijamse. The 3 yew trees on the village side of the house, a great rarity for that time, were also planted then. They are now over 150 years old.
During the war, the house was claimed by the Germans. It served as the “Ortskommandantur”. [Local command post] In the last year of the war (1944), it was used as a hospital for a year.
The Van der Aart Family
After years of vacancy and further decay, ‘t Huys Grol was sold on 15 August 1974 to the biologist Peter van der Aart and his wife Margriet van den Berg. Margriet van der Aart started renting out two rooms to bathers in the summer months in 1975.
And that’s how the first B&B in Renesse came to be.
Margot van der Aart and Michiel Smit
The parents wanted to pass on Huys Grol, and the boarding house function, to one of their children in due course. Margot and Michiel, who lived in Utrecht, wanted to continue the boarding house. In 1999, they quit their jobs (at the travel agency and in telecom) to run the guest house together. In 2007, they bought ‘t Huys Grol.
In 2019, Margot and Michiel moved from the Pension (from the current bungalow in the backyard) to Stoofweg 5, diagonally across the street from the Pension.
