Summer Houses in History
While nowadays summer houses don’t very much serve any purpose other than giving opportunity for a change of surroundings to the owner who wants to go on a vacation trip, during the 17th century for example, but also in many other periods, this was very different.
Smelly business
In a city in pre-modern times there was in summer a terrible smell. While the stereotype that all the feces would be dumped in the canals of a city isn’t true, it is most definitely true that the hygiene standards weren’t up to todays norms. This meant that in summer, when everything got heated, the smell would be terrible in cities, causing those with money to flee to the countryside. It was luxurious to not have to live in the city as a rich person, where there were diseases and such.
Lasting impact
While the rich of the past have passed away, their houses are often still standing. For example take a look at certain areas of the Netherlands. The towns of Wassenaar and Voorschoten are very good examples of this. While these towns are still inhabited by quite rich people, the big garden summer houses are no longer inhabited. Their parks have been turned into publicly accessible ground and the houses have often been repurposed to be used by the community. In this way these houses of the rich are still being kept standing upright.
Where were they built?
Now again looking at the previous example of Wassenaar and Voorschoten, one can see that the most expansive ground was chosen for building these houses. In this specific area, that would be sand. Building on dunes is much easier there, because our foundation will be much easier built. In the low lands behind the dunes with a lot of poldering the ground can sink and that will be damaging to your big summer mansion. It is very often in towns built near the dunes that you see these big houses still standing, because that was the ground most preferred by the rich at the time, also because it would give them status after some time.
