A Gemeenlandshuis, or Waterschapshuis is a building that is or was formerly used as the headquarters of one of the Waterboards of the Netherlands. The Netherlands has 27 Waterboards or Waterschappen.
Early flood control in the Netherlands is often called the Teerschouw, which loosely translated means "consumption during observation".[1] This technique was a periodic check of the local dike system by the Dike-reeve and his men. If they found a problem, they would simply go to the nearest house or fairly decent inn, and stay there for free until the problem was fixed. This was a fairly direct and simple form of water management. Fortunately these measures were rarely necessary, since the local people took water management very seriously. The Dike-reeve and his men (themselves local representatives of smaller water board agencies) mostly met to discuss major issues and water improvements, and though they met at each other's homes until the 16th century, as the country grew and the water management issues became more complex, halls were purchased to meet each other regularly.
The Water Boards became governing bodies much like a town hall became a meeting place for the city council. In most Dutch cities, especially those on a river or located at a seaside port, the Gemeenlandshuis was the same size as the Town Hall. Examples can be seen today in Leiden, home to the Gemeenlandshuis van Rijnland, and Delft, home to the Hoogheemraadschap Delfland.
The Water Boards governed territories that spanned several municipalities. Because of the complications this extra dimension gave to local governance, city planning was done as much as possible in accordance with water management plans. To save time, the meetings were done as much as possible near to the areas in question. This meant that the Dike-Reeve and his men needed to travel a lot. Since the Water Boards received their own income from taxes, they had enough money to spend on meeting halls, and they built meeting halls for convenience in out-of-the-way places. For this reason many meeting halls were unusually large that were located in very small towns, such as the Gemeenlandshuis Zwanenburg in Halfweg, or the Waterschapshuis in Onderdendam. These were locations that were strategically suited for meetings when the waterworks were being inspected.