New future

Iconic petrol station becomes monument

Published on 2025-06-24 at 09:06

Een beeld uit de gloriejaren van het tankstation.

A dilapidated petrol station on the Belgian-Dutch border, near Voeren in Limburg, will be granted monument status. This also brings closer the restoration of the dilapidated architectural drawl patch.

The iconic petrol station stands in Withuis near Eijsden-Margraten, just across the border from the Dutch town of Eijsden-Margraten, and is one of the last architectural examples of New Objectivity. Built in the early 1950s to a design by architect Ben Schinkel, it attracted many customers at the time because it was the first petrol pump on Dutch soil.

The building was designed after the American model. The petrol station has an awning with a mushroom column underneath, a kiosk and two garages with a see-through pit in the front one. Client Guus van der Cruijs had the petrol station built as an extension of his garage across the street. It was festively opened on 20 May 1953 by mayor Emile Duijsens and consecrated by parish priest Jos Debets.

Fuel tourism

In the 1950s, fuel prices in Belgium were much higher than in the Netherlands, so it attracted many Belgian tank tourists. The station was also located along a major through road. On Saturdays, many Belgians in particular came to wash their cars at the car wash. While waiting, customers would then go for a beer in the adjacent café. On the website Eijsdensverleden.nl, former employee Marie-Anne van der Cruijs says it was always busy (there) with cars and trucks. “My mother-in-law Pauline even got out of bed in the middle of the night if someone with a moped wanted to fill up a few litres,” she testifies.

In the 1970s, the A2 was extended to the Belgian border. As a result, traffic in Withuis decreased. The petrol station closed in 1983, after competition from a new petrol station a few hundred metres away had become too great. The petrol station operated until 1983, after which it quickly fell into disrepair. It became a favourite object for hobby photographers.

Restoration

In 2022, the building was bought by the BOEI foundation, which works to preserve industrial heritage in the Netherlands. They first and foremost made the building wind- and waterproof so that it could be preserved. Eijsden-Margraten now declared the building a municipal monument, bringing the restoration of the iconic little building finally one step closer. The municipality wants to have the little gas station restored and given a new purpose. “We are thinking of a coffee and lunch room with charging points for e-bikes and perhaps also electric cars,” says councillor Steijns-Huids in Het Belang van Limburg. “After all, a lot of tourists still pass through there.”

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This article was automatically translated from the Dutch language original to English (British).

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