On this day 80 years ago: C15TA in action in the Battle of the Scheldt

[Jakko Westerbeke]

I would be very surprised if the building with the tower in 1944 is the same as the one today — it looks to me like it’s a new building in the same place. As I suspected, it’s the town hall. Here’s the same building as in the 1944 photo:

Gemeentehuis Krabbedijke 1.jpeg

That photo is probably 1920s at the latest. In a later postcard, dated “1960–1979” on the site that sells it, there’s the building that’s there today:

Gemeentehuis Krabbedijke 2.jpg

The building next to it is the same in both photos, judging by the three bands of light-coloured stone (?), but it got a slight extension to its roof somewhere between the 1920s and 1944, possibly when it was converted into a shop (it seems to be a house in the 1920s, but has a shop front in 1944). The whole building must have been torn down at some point after the war.

The building was the town hall until 1970, when Krabbendijke ceased to be a separate municipality, but I can’t find when the post-war building was constructed. It looks 1950s to me, though. There is this article from 2018 about when thethen-owner sold it, but that’s behind a paywall. But using an iPad from someone who does have a PZC subscription, I discovered this:

PZC.jpeg

Men playing billiards and women knitting
The town hall, originally built in 1888, has no secrets for [the current owner, Mr. Weststrate]. ”I bought it in ’88, before then it was still being used by men playing billiards, women knitting and teenagers. That ended when community hall De Meiboom was completed.” Weststrate also knows all there is to know about the major reconstruction of 1949, in which the whole building was raised by a storey.

So it is the same building, even though you would’t think it is.