17 In the swan 74

The history of the house "de swaen", Stokstraat 37, is much older than the year 1774 as the caption on the gablestone suggests. The history of a house can be given more substance by using data from the archives and especially the 'gichten' (register of purchases and sales).
As early as the 16th century, the corner house "de swaen" belonged to the Here family and in 1579 it was the home of a brewery. In 1607 it was mentioned as being situated diagonally opposite the houses "sampson" on the Stokstraat and "den ancker" on the Eksterstraatje.
In 1629 a Willem de Peron lived in "the swaen", which however was owned by Jan Maes, married to Pietje van Here and who had probably also turned it into an inn. In 1634, Jan Maes rented out the inn to brewer Crijn Craen, who was also allowed to use the barrels of the panhouse (=brewery). In 1650, the house was sold to brewer Olivier le Tichon. In 1709 "de swaen" was mentioned as one of the few inns allowed to brew and sell beer themselves. Presumably, the old house had fallen into disrepair, because when it was bought by the sworn council Eustachius Lousbergh in 1774, it was immediately radically rebuilt, including the erection of a new facade, in which the gable stone 17 IN DE SWAEN 74 was placed.
It should also be noted that in the 18th century, due to the flourishing Meuse trade, the Stokstraat had become a fashionable residential area and that you could clearly tell from the houses built or renovated at that time.
Within a few years, "de swaen" changed hands several times. In 1786, it belonged to the architect J. Sanders; in 1791, the stonemason Laurentius Leonard was the owner who was still living there in 1802.

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Towards the end of the 19th century, "the swan" and the whole Stokstraat area went downhill. When the house was empty in 1958, the gable stone was broken out of the facade and stolen. A few days later it was found in Aachen. All this prompted the carnival paper "De Tempeleer" to publish a cartoon showing two soldiers dragging the stone on a pram and the loaded caption: "Das hatten wir in '44 noch verjessen."

Fragments from the past.

In the period from 23 August 1871 to 8 January 1873, according to the Maastricht population register, Christiaan Baartscheer, a day labourer by profession, and Joanna Hubertina Thimister lived in this house (then house number 3018, now number 37). The couple came from the Ruiterstraat in Wyck and already had one son, Jacobus. In their new home in Stokstraat a daughter was born on 1 November 1872: Maria Gertrudis. On 8 January 1873 the family moved back to Wyck.

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