What's in a name - Sillemstraat

The name of the street on which we live is Sillemstraat and ever since we have lived there I have wondered what the origin of "Sillem" was. The area in which we live is the Indischebuurt (Indian Quarter) and many of the streets take their names from locations in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia which declared independence from the Netherlands just after the Second World War), for example Minahassastraat, Ambonstraat, Cheribonstraat and Soerabajastraat. However, I was unable to find any reference to a place called Sillem in either the Dutch East Indies or Indonesia.

So the mystery remained until a few weeks ago when I found a book in the local library entitled "De Straat Waarin Wij Wonen" ("The Street on which we live"). This book gave explanations of the origins of every street-name in Haarlem and so I was finally able to solve the puzzle. It turns out that Sillemstraat was actually named after an Amsterdam banker by the name of Hieronymous Sillem, who lived from 1768 to 1833. In 1812 he bought the country estate of Spaarnhoven in Schoten, Schoten being the original name of that part of Haarlem-Noord. This estate had existed since the mid 16th century and was used as headquarters by the Spanish during the siege of Haarlem in 1572-3.

The estate was enlarged in 1823 and a large country park built. This park housed a Swiss-style building which was in existence until as recently as 1973 when it burned down in its then location on the Melkerijpad in Noordersportpark . The construction of the park was carried out by the horticulturist and landscaper J.D Zocher (of the famous landscaping Zocher family who also have a street named after them, Zocherstraat, in the Patriomoniumbuurt just north of Haarlem station). The whole estate was auctioned off in 1859 and three years later it disappeared entirely to be replaced by a farm, also named Spaarnhoven. This farm was then demolished in 1920 and is now the location of Spaarnhovenstraat. This map, from 1867, shows Schoten at that time with the former location of Spaarnhoven shown roughly in the centre of the map (indicated by "Voormalig Spaarnhoven").

And it appears that the streets adjacent to Sillemstraat are also named after important Schoten landowners of the past. Hodsonstraat, which runs perpendicular to Sillemstraat, takes its name from Albertus Hodshon (1703-1770), an Amsterdam linen merchant who bought the "Klein Berkenrode" (the previous name of Spaarnhoven) estate of in 1761.

Borkistraat, which runs adjacent to Sillemstraat to the south, is named after Johannes Borski (1807-1891), of the famous Amsterdam banking family (his mother being Johanna Borski) and owner of the Hartenlust estate in Bloemandaal (which still exists today, http://www.landgoedhartenlust.nl/landgoed.html). He was also married to Olga Emelie Sillem, the daughter of Hieronymous Sillem.