47 · 30047 · 254992 · 762833

A telephone number is a small thing to build a deep dive on, yet at this address it leaves a useful dated trail¹. Firms came and went at Rochussenstraat 169, and the same number keeps turning up in the entries of different firms². What follows takes each entry with its year and its named firm. None of them shows a subscription changing hands³.

47, the earliest line

In 1903 an advertisement in De Nederlander printed 47 for the Rochussenstraat works, with 3341 beside it for the showroom downtown⁴. So the first number we know of was already one of two lines. On 6 March 1909 an advertisement in De Kunst gave 47 again for Rochussenstraat 169⁵:

In 1922 it was still the works' line⁶. Van Duffelen & Pelt was then trading inside the Beens group, and the old Rochussenstraat 47 was carried into the entry for the shared showroom at Coolsingel 49, printed as 13625–47 beside the group's own number⁷.

30047, the line the address keeps

The corner is first attested on a longer number in 1929, and that number recurs there for years. That year the directory listed 30047 at Rochussenstraat 169 for the Continental Carpet and Furnishing Company, whose shop was at 169a^8 9. H. P. Beens had set up the concern in 1926 alongside the old furniture company, before that firm was liquidated¹⁰.

Rotterdam telephone directory, 1929: "Continental Carpet and Furnishing Company (N.V. Continental Carpet and Furniture-fabrics Trading Co.), Rochussenstraat 169 — telephone 30047."

Three years later the same number answered at the same door under the firm's trade name. The 1932 telephone book has one of the most telling entries we hold¹¹: at Rochussenstraat 169 the trade name Furnishco stands over the Continental Carpet company, on 30047¹². Below it come the home lines of two directors on the same street. H. P. Beens is at no. 169, on that same 30047 after six in the evening¹³. The other is next door at no. 171 on 36047, a line the firm's own entry at 169 also carried. The directory implies that its holder, J. A. van Duyn, was a second director of the firm, but the commercial register does not back this up, so the directorship is only probable¹⁴. Who really stood behind the Furnishco name remains an open question, discussed in its own open file.

Rotterdam telephone directory, 1932: "Furnishco, N.V. — Continental Carpet and Furnishing Company (N.V. Continental Carpet and Furniture-fabrics Trading Co.), Rochussenstraat 169 — telephones 30047, 36047. Residence of director H. P. Beens, Rochussenstraat 169, after 6 p.m. tel 30047. Residence of director J. A. van Duyn, Rochussenstraat 171, after 6 p.m. tel 36047."

In 1932 the line at 169 still answered for the Continental company on 30047¹⁵. Van Duyn was no stranger to the door. His household had moved to 169b in December 1931¹⁶, yet the 1932 directory still gave him a separate line at no. 171, and his name appears at 169b only from the 1933 volume¹⁷. In that 1933 volume he is listed at 169b on the same 30047¹⁸.

Rotterdam telephone directory, 1933: "J. A. van Duyn, Rochussenstraat 169b — telephone 30047."

The handover was gradual, and the letters of the address show it. Through the middle of the decade Furnishco kept its own listing at 169a, while van Duyn's household line stood at 169b; the 1936 directory has both¹⁹.

In the 1937 volume the Furnishco entry can be read, but no separate van Duyn entry at 169b has been recovered from it, and no single year marks a takeover²⁰. Who lived and traded behind each letter is set out in the corner's own register. By 1938 the directory lists van Duyn's own wholesale business at 169 on the same 30047²¹. That is a business listing in a directory. A private classified advertisement under the same name in March 1938 cannot by itself show that the firm occupied the premises²².

Rotterdam telephone directory, 1938: "J. A. van Duyn — furniture, carpets and fabrics wholesale, Centrum, Rochussenstraat 169 — telephone 30047."

The next year the firm put the number in a display advertisement, with address and line set out together: Rochussenstraat 169 · Telefoon 30047²³.

J. A. VAN DUYN SHOW-ROOMS OF FURNITURE CARPETS AND FABRICS ROCHUSSENSTRAAT 169 ROTTERDAM - TELEPHONE 30047

In 1940 P. van Reeuwijk opened temporary showrooms at 169 and advertised the same number, Telefoon Nieuwe Showrooms 30047²⁴. This was a different firm at the same address, printing the same number²⁵.

> VAN REEUWIJK'S > COMPANY FOR HOME FURNISHING > Offices provisionally located: BERGSINGEL No. 72 > > IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT > Our manufacturers and other suppliers have, with great goodwill, placed at our disposal a large and splendid collection of > Bedrooms - Living rooms - Sitting rooms > Office installations - Carpets - Curtains > which we are going to sell in our new temporary > SHOWROOMS ROCHUSSENSTRAAT 169 > WHICH WILL BE OPENED NEXT THURSDAY 23 MAY > Complete home furnishing > DIRECT DELIVERY > VAN REEUWIJK'S > COMPANY FOR HOME FURNISHING > ROCHUSSENSTRAAT 169 > Telephone New Showrooms 30047

By the 1950s van Duyn was advertising two lines at once: 30047 and a second number, 31805²⁶.

At this address 30047 appears from 1929 until at least the end of September 1960, across a carpet company, two furnishing firms and a wartime tenant²⁷.

254992, 762833, and the end of the line

As the Rotterdam exchange grew the numbers changed, and the jump to 254992 is marked in the sources as a renumbering of the network, yet a number kept recurring at the corner²⁸. Van Duyn's furnishing firm was answering on 254992 by 1967, when an advertisement printed Rochussenstraat 169 — Tel. 254992, and was still on it in April 1971²⁹. By June 1974 the number was 762833³⁰. A recruitment advertisement that month, the last call for a cabinet-maker found in this material, gave Rochussenstraat 169 · Tel. 762833³¹.

Firm J. A. van Duijn home-furnishing Rochussenstraat 169 Rotterdam - Tel. 762833 seeks [an] experienced cabinetmaker Applications please after a telephone appointment.

The same number stayed with the shop into its last years³². A 1976 advertisement gave it as Telefoon (010) 76 28 33³³.

> EXCLUSIVE DISPLAY CABINET > Entirely hand-made > Fa. J. A. VAN DUYN > ROTTERDAM-ROCHUSSENSTRAAT 169 > TELEPHONE (010) 762833 > FURNITURE. CARPETS, BEDS. CURTAIN AND UPHOLSTERY FABRICS

The closing-down sale of 1987 ran under the last of these numbers, in its full modern form, 010-4762833^34 35.

> CLOSING-DOWN > SALE > Fa. J. A. van Duyn > classic furniture > of top quality up to > 50% DISCOUNT > Rochussenstraat 169 > R'dam 010-4762833

That sale ends the run of telephone numbers we can document for the furnishing years. Later the music venue in the squatted corner advertised contact numbers of its own; a web capture of May 2000 records them, but nothing in it ties them to the furnishing-era number³⁶.