Paleis voor Volksvlijt

After Samuel Sarphati had visited The Great Exhibition, he decided to found the Vereeniging voor Volksvlijt (Association for Popular Diligence) with the goal of erecting a building similar to the Crystal Palace in London.

His new Palace was to be part of an extensive plan of expansion of the city, which also included construction on the banks of the Amstel and in what is now De Pijp.

Starting 1865, it hosted weekly concerts by its own Palace Orchestra, directed by Johannes Meinardus Coenen until 1891, then by Richard Hol.

The ground was to house a luxury shopping gallery designed by Adolf Leonard van Gendt in 1881–1883.

Under the directorate of Johannes George de Groot, his operatic troupe performed in the Palace, until it went bankrupt in 1895.

The Palace in 1890
Paleis voor Volksvlijt aerial view, before the fire of 1929
Paleis voor Volksvlijt aerial view, after the fire of 1929