Five Brothers and a War

Margrietstraat 20

By Dutch standards, this was a very large house. It was three-stories tall. The ground level (first story in North America) held the living room, dining room, kitchen and WC (half bathroom in North America). It also had four closets separating the living room from the dining room, one of which would become critical to the family’s survival during the coming war. As Leendert’s middle floor office was the entire width of the house, it had sole access to the front balcony. Every other house in the row was similarly designed, so there was a single-course brick divider separating each balcony. Those dividers were stair-stepped, so the net effect was that access to the top floor and the roof could be accomplished using those dividers. The rear balcony was accessible from both the bedrooms.

van Pelt

Margrietstraat 20, separated from the rest of the herenhuizen (“townhouses”) on the street.

Five Brothers and a War

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