Flora en Fauna in and around Het Zonnehuis

The garden is developing beautifully. We owe this to the recent rainfall and the higher temperatures, but also to the extensive maintenance and the loving attention to the garden and the forest. It is always a surprise which flowers appear. We have had beautiful rhododendrons and now the different types of hydrangeas are in full bloom. Water lilies bloom in the pond. The harvest of strawberries and various herbs has started. In the pond we see frogs, bass and goldfish. In the forest we spotted squirrels, a deer and field mice. In addition, many species of birds and insects.

Connection with "Het Zonneke"

Zo leuk hoe vroegere bezoekers van het Zonneke ons al weten te vinden. In de korte tijd dat we hier zitten hebben we bezoek gehad van een oud personeelslid en een oud bewoonster van het Zonneke. 60 jaar na dato hebben ze het Zonnehuis opnieuw gevonden en vonden het erg leuk om de plek waar ze destijds een tijdje hebben gewerkt en gewoond opnieuw te bezoeken. Er is ook een facebook pagina beschikbaar voor de community van het Kindertehuis 't-Zonneke Boxtel https://www.facebook.com/hetZonneke

Vind je het leuk om ook eens te komen kijken. Neem dan contact met ons op via info@hetzonnehuisboxtel.com

It's so nice how former visitors to the Zonneke already know where to find us. In the short time we have been here, we have had a visit from two old staff members and a former resident of the Zonneke. 60 years later they have rediscovered the Zonnehuis and really enjoyed visiting the place where they worked and lived for a while. There is also a facebook page available for the community of the Children's Home 't-Zonneke Boxtel https://www.facebook.com/hetZonneke

Would you like to come and have a look. Please contact us via info@hetzonnehuisboxtel.com

Do you know the history of "Het Zonnehuis"?

The place where the Zonnehuis is located was for a long time an 'uninhabited' forest. In the nineteenth century we first see regent/administrator Henricus de Wijs from Den Bosch, owner of the Halsche Heide. After him, Carolus van Rijckevorssel becomes the owner. He is a descendant of the well-known family of administrators that was raised to the nobility at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The foundation mother of this branch of Van Rijckevorssel comes from Hilvarenbeek. He sells the Halsche Heide to the Boxtel manufacturer Alphonsus Augustinus van der Eerden. Van Eerden, whose heirs hand over the forest to the influential Rotterdam industrialist Henri Ferdinand Kersten. He commissions an architect from Schiebroek to design a country house. Probably intended as a holiday villa. In about 1938 he built a house in the woods, called Villa Kerstens. In 1943 he sells the villa to Wilhelmus E. van Vonderen, a merchant from Rijswijk. He sells the house at the White-Yellow Cross. 't Zonneke was founded in 1951 and the R.K. Transit and Observation Center in this villa. It was a children's home for 45 normally gifted (initially Brabant) school-age boys and girls. They were temporarily housed here by child protection because of family problems and admitted for observation and crisis care. During their stay, the children visited the Boxtel schools. First was Miss. Lemmens was Head and later Mr. P. Scheerman became director of 't Zonneke. In 1970 three pavilions were built on the site for the children and the villa became the management building. In 1977 a merger took place with the children's home De Sprankel in Veldhoven. 't Zonneke was closed in the 1980s.

source: https://heemkundeboxtel.nl/wp-content/uploads/encyclopedie-version-7c-gecomp.pdf, Ton de Jong