PIET VAN Vlissingen was an elementary school teacher in the Dutch town of Spijkenisse, but he himself hailed from Weesp. His wife Trijntje seduced him to come and live in Spijkenisse. Eight children in fourteen years, the oldest was Jaap, who died in the cradle. They missed him. Son number two was baptized Arie, but number three got the late little Jaap’s name. Because of his job, Piet came into contact with many people. He heard their stories about other locals who over time had emigrated to the Chicago area. They had built their own town there, South Holland. And they were looking for teachers.
The whole family embarked in 1873 and crossed the Atlantic. They were quick to integrate. Within six years all Van Vlissingens were US citizens. They were a family of all hands on deck, rolling up their sleeves. In no time, sons Arie and Jaap-2 started working for themselves. They had new names, Arthur and James.
Fast forward to today. Look at the Chicago skyline from Lake Michigan, and you’ll see Arie and Jaap van Vlissingen’s fingerprints. No one has left a bigger mark on what America’s third-largest city looks like than the two brothers. Even a century and a half later, Van Vlissingen & Co is still by far the most important project developer in and around Chicago.
THERE WASN’T much to it when they first arrived, officially a city but more like a village. The Chicago Fire had only recently reduced part of it to ashes, and all around you you’d surprisingly often hear people speaking Dutch. Many Dutch farming families had moved to Illinois in the second half of the nineteenth century, hard workers who did their best to make something of it. Most stayed close to each other. For a while, Chicago was known as a Dutch American farming community.
Arie and Jaap saw at a glance what opportunities there were for the taking. A city on the water, railway lines leading to it, flat land that could not only be well cultivated, but also well developed. They started by buying up large tracts of land, especially south of the city. Instead of then flipping them, they developed the sites first. They built roads, negotiated with businesses to come and settle there, and that’s how they created completely new residential and business developments. They made them look good, and user friendly.
THEY INVOLVED railway magnate Pullman, for mobility was a prerequisite if you wanted to make a newly developed area attractive to investors and families with money in the bank. America was growing fast in those years, with millions of new immigrants from a wide variety of countries. Dutch, German, Polish and Italian made way for one compromise language, English. The brothers began to build higher up, especially as they expanded their activities northward, across the Chicago River.
They had the harbor dredged, they designed plans for the city’s waterfront, and they made room for the famous Wrigley Building skyscraper. Today’s taller towers are from a later time, but their business still exists and continues to leave a big mark on what the city and its suburbs look like today. A long Van Vlissingen Road runs through Chicago, everyone knows where to find it and how to pronounce it. Because Piet and Trijn’s boys, they made the city what it looks like today, and many Chicagoans are proud of that.
And yet, the old little town of South Holland is still there, by the way.
