While the Honigmann brothers are pioneering their Oranje-Nassau mines in Schaesberg and Heerlen, mine operator Laura & Vereeniging begins to deepen two shafts further east at Eijgelshoven.
It is the beginning of the private Laura mine, named after one of the wives of the duo from Herzogenrath that bought a concession in this area a quarter of a century earlier.
When a German mining association acquires the nearby 'Vereeniging' concession and then buys up the 'Laura' concession, 'Laura & Vereeniging' is a fact.
However, the first shovel will only go into the ground after both concessions have been placed in the coal company of the Belgian General Albert Thys. Initially, everything goes according to plan, until the groundwater breaks through and floods the shafts again and again.
A difficult start, but when everything is under control, the mining company thrives.
In 1921 Laura & Vereeniging started the construction of a second mining site. Named after the wife of Albert Thys, she will be called 'Julia'. The mine management realizes that there will never be enough housing for the new workforce that the Julia mine will attract.
Houses will have to be built, but Laura & Vereeniging, unlike the Oranje-Nassau mines and Staatsmijnen, does not have its own construction department.
That is why the management approached the housing foundation Thuis Best and a competition was launched for the design of a modern garden village with a church, monastery, schools and shops. And so between 1926 and 1931 'Lauradorp' arose on the meadows near the ribbon villages of Waubach and Groenstraat.
In five years' time, the former municipality of Ubach over Worms will receive 485 more homes. The first 94 were designed by architect FW de Rooi. However, the lion's share of Lauradorp is designed by architect Jos Drummen, who emerged as the winner with his design.
It is a compromise between a modern working-class neighborhood and a pastoral Limburg village. The friendly, red-roofed houses are grouped along streets and beds with many trees, shrubs and flower beds.
All streets come together in a green heart, where the most important facilities can also be found. It is an exemplary reflection of the garden village idea. In addition, the roads are paved and every house is connected to the water supply and the electricity network.
At that time an unprecedented luxury for workers' houses. Lauradorp is the ideal miner's colony and miner's families from all over the world find a pleasant home there.
Directly at the green heart of Lauradorp, a large site has remained undeveloped. Drummen has reserved space for the church here. The emergency church is now almost bursting at the seams.
Various fundraising campaigns are being set up and Laura & Vereeniging have business engineer Jan Beersma design a church building. Beersma has already drawn the water tower of Rimburg and the new town hall of Ubach over Worms.
His design for the church of Lauradorp is characterized by a traditional brick construction with a modern nod to the Gothic. In October 1933 the first stone can finally be laid.
When the church is finished the following year, hundreds of people have flocked to attend the dedication ceremony. The church is dedicated to the newly canonized Therese of Liseux, also known as Therese of the Infant Jesus, and to the Italian priest Giovanni Bosco, better known as Don Bosco.
The latter is the founder of the Salesians of Don Bosco, a congregation that has brought Dr Henri Poels, the chaplain from the Mining Region, to Lauradorp.
This text has been automatically translated using an online translation service.
