UG Buildings: the Main Administrative Building

The University of Groningen as we know it now is more than the Academy Building alone. In this series, based on the podwalk and the booklet In het spoor van de Academie (in Dutch only), we are putting a spotlight on various buildings—and a work of art—of the UG and their histories. In this episode: the Main Administration Building.

The building at Oude Boteringestraat 44 is an example of a late eighteenth-century patrician house. Jacobus van der Steege, a doctor of the Dutch East India Company doctor who made his fortune in the East Indies, had this small city palace built in 1791. When the Netherlands was a part of the French empire from 1810 to 1813, it used to accommodate French soldiers, but after that the house was sold to Gustaaf Willem, Baron van Imhoff. In 1814, he was the first Commissioner of the King in the province of Groningen in the newly formed United Kingdom of the Netherlands. The building remained the Commissioner’s official residence until the Second World War. This also made it the ‘government hotel’, serving as the royal family’s regular Groningen lodging address.

This was the case in 1922, for example, when they were present to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Relief of Groningen. It was the first time Princess Juliana—who was thirteen at the time—visited Groningen, accompanied by her parents, Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Hendrik. After 1948, it became the home base of the newly established Faculty of Economics at the UG,  and it had several rooms assigned to the Geographic Institute and its Professor Hendrik Keuning. After the Faculty of Economics moved to the new University premises at Paddepoel— now called the Zernike Campus—the Board of the University moved into the building. To this day, Oude Boteringstraat 44 is the University’s Main Administrative Building, which  is currently being restored.

Want to find out more?

Check our overview page for the editions on the Academy Building, the Ubbo Emmius monument, the University Library, the Röling Building, the former Laboratory for Hygiene, the former Astronomy Laboratory, the Institute of Archaeology, the House with the 13 Temples, the Old Courthouse, the Faculty of Philosophy and the Heymans Building.

Are you interested in the buildings and history of the UG? You can download the podwalk ‘In the footsteps of the Academy’ for free. Go to the App Store (Apple) or Google Play (Android) and search for ‘Op stap met Aletta’. At the I-shop (University Shop), the walking guide In het spoor van de Academie (Dutch only) is available for €9.95: www.rug.nl/winkel.