A Gable Stone that Tells a Story

The gable stone inside the Zonshofje’s courtyard depicts the Biblical tale of Noah’s Ark replete with a bright sun shining overhead. Lines of religious poetry beneath the clock remind readers to use their time well and also include some word play on Sun [Zon] and Ark, thereby paying tribute to two former Mennonite congregations that met at this site:

Faith has here God’s Word unveiled;
Love has for us this dwelling built;
May Hope unceasingly compel us
To behold the Sun of souls,
To redeem the time with care,
And thus to flee unto the Ark of Salvation.
MDCCLXV [1765]

From 1671 to 1677, the site was used as a hidden church for a split-off of the larger Zon church on the Singel until the group merged back in with their mother church. They called it De Kleine Zon [the Little Sun]. In 1720, the Old Frisians purchased the former-Kleine Zon alongside an additional ‘achterhuis’ on the Prinsenstraat. They called the church De Arke Noach [Noah’s Ark], keeping the name they had used at previous premises around Amsterdam.

In 1752 the Old Frisians too merged with the congregation of the Zon church on the Singel, and the property was converted into a hofje for elderly Mennonite women. It came into use in 1765. Rooms were also made available to house orphans in the building to the right of the entrance hall. Nothing of the original hidden church interior remained after the space was renovated into a hofje. However drawings by draughtsman Cornelis Pronk, who was himself a member of the Old Frisian congregation there, preserve its appearance. These were also used as the basis for prints. Furthermore, Pronk’s student Hendrik de Winter, who was a member of the Zonist congregation, drew the interior of the church during the Lord’s Supper as one of several church illustrations for an extended edition of the Zonist Hermanus Schijn’s Geschiedenis der Mennonieten [History of the Mennonites].

The hofje continued to serve as a home for the elderly well into the twentieth century, as a group photo from 1913 of the residents on the occasion of a directrice’s 25 anniversary so vividly demonstrates. Today, the hofje, which is still owned and operated by Doopsgezind Amsterdam provides young adult housing: there are 30 rooms for Dutch young people and 7 room for international students connected with study programs of the Doopsgezind Seminarium.