The Jordaan

Beginning about 1585, the city of Amsterdam experienced huge population growth and enjoyed an increase in prosperity. Early in the 17th century, new and grand canal houses were being built in Amsterdam along the recently-created large canals that concentrically encircled the older part of the city. Starting about 1613, industries such as dyeing, tanning, brewing and sugar refining, potteries, forges and smithys were banned from the inner city and grand canal sectors of Amsterdam, in order to reduce pollution in the main canals and in the air of central Amsterdam, and to reduce risk of a widespread and devastating fire. At this time a new sector of Amsterdam, called the Nieuwe Werck (later called the Jordaan), was conceived, which would house these lucrative industries. The Jordaan was located on a polder that was immediately adjacent to the west side of Amsterdam, and the Jordaan's streets and canals were made to run southwest-northeast, following drainage channels already existing in this polder. Water was drained from the Jordaan's canals into the Prinsengracht running along the eastern edge of the Jordaan, and from here it flowed out into the harbor. The Prinsengracht was isolated from all of Amsterdam's other canals, and its water level was kept the same level as the Jordaan's canals and lower than the canals in Amsterdam itself, in order to keep the Jordaan from flooding. This was also designed so that the water in the canals of the Jordaan, containing industrial waste discharged from the various factories located there, would be flushed away and replenished by fresh water channeled in from the southwest. Meanwhile, waterways in the center of Amsterdam, and in the grand canals, were continually refreshed by clean water from the River Amstel as it flowed in from the south. Thus the water in Amsterdam itself would remain segregated from any pollution occuring in the Jordaan.

Goosen Jans van Nuys owned several properties on a corner of the Tichelstraat in the Jordaan, located at the red dot in the map below. He owned several other properties in this part of Amsterdam.

Benning Wyma owned quite a few properties on various streets and canals in the Jordaan. The Jordaan is distinctly visible in a modern map of Amsterdam (below, marked in blue).