Gezellenhuis

Laurastraat 48
Eygelshoven

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At the beginning of the twentieth century, the enormous influx of workers for the mines caused a great lack of housing in Eygelshoven and the surrounding area.

For unmarried workers, the company 'Laura en Vereeniging' builds the company house on Laurastraat. This guest house was put into use in 1919 and was demolished in 1975. The emerging mining industry was a magnet for migrant workers.

The workers came from far and wide to the mining area and especially young men came for the new jobs. There was insufficient housing for all those workers in and around Heerlen and Kerkrade.

In 1915 the eastern mining area had about 80,000 inhabitants. Compared to 1900 this was already more than double. Caravans, barns, stables, damp cellars and cramped attics, people were accommodated everywhere.

Many homes and lodging houses were overcrowded with boarders. Sometimes this situation was so dire that not every boarder had their own bed. A bed was sometimes rented per shift. The night shift miner slept in it during the day, while another worked during the day and lay in the same bed at night.

The Goed Kosthuis aimed to reduce the housing shortage and improve the housing of singles by offering accommodation to unmarried workers in board houses and trusted pensions. There was, of course, a moral side to this.

They wanted to curb the use of many families to take in unmarried miners as boarders. The founders of Het Goed Kosthuis saw overcrowding as undesirable, especially when there were young daughters in a family.

The guest houses breathed the atmosphere of a monastery. The communal dining room was reminiscent of a monastery refectory and the sleeping places resembled the sleeping cells of monks. The regime within the guest houses was also copied from the

monastic life.

A resident rector was responsible for the day-to-day management and ensured strict compliance with the house rules. That's not a lie. Playing cards for money was prohibited and the presence of liquor in the rooms was strictly controlled.

Swearing and other inappropriate language were not desired and it was even forbidden to whistle, sing or make music in the house. Women's visits were not allowed. Only cleaning women were allowed to enter the buildings, but they did their work in the constant presence of a religious overseer. Security took precedence over everything.

This text has been automatically translated using an online translation service.

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