A Little Bit Of Amsterdam Keeps Glover Avenue Safe

By Jan Howard

They are seen all over the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands but only on Glover Avenue here in Newtown.

One of them was recently featured in The Bee’s weekly Bee’s Buck mystery photo.

The posts that line the front of the property of Hendrik and Catharina Bagmeyer at 13 Glover Avenue so intrigued one passerby from Redding that a stamped envelope was left with a note asking the Bagmeyers what the three crosses on the posts meant. Mr Bagmeyer said he responded to the inquiry with information about the function of the posts and the meaning of the three crosses. He said it is the only time anyone has ever questioned the meaning of the three crosses.

 The posts are used in Amsterdam to separate sidewalks from roadways, protect buildings from vehicles, and to block off streets where no traffic is allowed, Mr Bagmeyer, a native of the Netherlands, said this week.

The three crosses depicted vertically on the posts are called the St Andries crosses, he said. They have appeared in the coat of arms of the city of Amsterdam since the 14th century. The tradition is that the crosses protect the city against water, plague and fire.

 No one seems to know who St Andries was or why the crosses became part of the city’s coat of arms, Mr Bagmeyer said, though he has tried to find out. The answer remains elusive.

The need for protection against water is something residents of Amsterdam know a lot about. The city, which consists of a lot of islands separated by canals, lies below sea level and depends on dikes to protect it from flooding. In 1953, the city experienced a devastating flood when the dikes burst.

“A lot of people died,” Mrs Bagmeyer said.

Photographs in a book about the flood show the damage to the city in graphic detail.  Because of that, Mr Bagmeyer pointed out, the city takes good care of the dikes that hold back the water, which is a constant threat to the city.

Mr Bagmeyer brought one of the metal posts home with him from a trip to Amsterdam about two years ago. The post was found at a construction site by a member of Mrs Bagmeyer’s family.

The posts were installed in Amsterdam after World War II because of increases in traffic, Mr Bagmeyer said, noting,  “They put the posts up to keep pedestrians safe.” The posts are also used to block off traffic from shopping areas that are limited to pedestrians.

He explained the posts in Amsterdam have plate bottoms that are buried in the ground to keep the posts upright. He removed the plate bottom from his post in order to transport the approximately 50 to 60 pound post home on the airplane.

“I took it home and put it in a flowerpot with cement to hold it up,” Mr Bagmeyer said.

Airport personnel, of course, were curious about what the strange object was, he noted.

Friends from the Netherlands wondered how Mr Bagmeyer had brought all the posts that line the front of his property to the United States. Of course, he didn’t. He brought only one, made of metal, which served as a model for the other ten.

He created the ten posts from plastic drainpipe.

“I split the pipe to make it tapered and then put clamps around it for the shape and riveted the two pieces together,” he said.

He made the rounded tops by cutting Styrofoam balls in half. The crosses were cut out with a jigsaw, he said. It took about six weeks for him to make the ten posts.

He then joined the 11 posts with sections of plastic chain link, making an attractive fence for the front of the property.

 Mr and Mrs Bagmeyer came to the United States from the Netherlands in 1956 and settled first in Sandy Hook. They bought the house on Glover Avenue after they returned from a three-year stint in the Netherlands to help his two brothers in the family flower shops when his father retired.

Mr Bagmeyer is retired from Danbury Volkswagen where he was a service advisor for 19 years. He and his wife have two grown daughters and one grandson.

The Bagmeyers’ home is filled with Dutch tiles, books, and other reminders of their homeland, even chocolate candies in the shape of the Amsterdam posts, which were brought to them by friends from that city.

 Mr and Mrs Bagmeyer make frequent trips to the Netherlands to visit family members. Who knows what memorabilia of the Netherlands they might bring home to Newtown from a trip they plan to take in the near future.