Het West-Indisch Huis

Het West-Indisch Huis is a 1617 landmark on the Herenmarkt, a small square between the Haarlemmerstraat and the Brouwersgracht in central Amsterdam. From 1623 to 1647 it was the headquarters of the Dutch West India Company (WIC), and it was here that the company’s directors ordered a fort built on Manhattan in 1625. Today the building is an event venue for weddings, dinners and business meetings, with a café on the ground floor and a courtyard where you can see a bronze statue of Peter Stuyvesant.

This guide covers the building’s history, including the parts that are hard to hear, its event rooms and capacities, what you can see without booking anything, and how to get there.

Address	Herenmarkt 99, 1013 EC Amsterdam
Neighborhood	Haarlemmerbuurt, city center
Built	1617, as a meat hall with a civic guard room upstairs
Best known for	Dutch West India Company headquarters, 1623 to 1647
Use today	Event venue, offices, John Adams Institute, Café Nieuw Amsterdam
Largest room	Schutterszaal: 150 m², up to 250 guests
Venue contact	[email protected], +31 (0)20 625 7528
Nearest station	Amsterdam Centraal, about a 10 to 15 minute walk

Details checked against the venue’s website and public sources in September 2026.

History of the West India House

The city of Amsterdam built two identical meat halls in 1617, one on the Westermarkt and one on the Herenmarkt. Each had a meat market on the ground floor and a guard room for the local civic militia (the schutterij) upstairs, reached by a tall stone outdoor staircase. The Herenmarkt hall is the one that survives.

In 1623 the Dutch West India Company, founded two years earlier, rented the building. It housed the company’s Amsterdam chamber and, for much of that period, the meetings of the Heren XIX, the company’s governing board. During the WIC years the building gained two new wings around a central courtyard, which roughly tripled its size.

Links to New York and Piet Heyn

In 1625 the directors meeting here ordered the construction of a fort on Manhattan, the start of the settlement of New Amsterdam, later New York. When news of the Manhattan purchase reached the headquarters in November 1626, director Pieter Schagen wrote to the States General in The Hague that “our people have purchased the island Manhattes from the Indians for the value of 60 guilders.” Two years later, in 1628, the building stored the booty Admiral Piet Heyn’s fleet took when it captured the Spanish silver fleet off Cuba.

The slave trade connection

The New York story is only part of the history. The Dutch state gave the WIC a monopoly on Dutch participation in the Atlantic slave trade, and over its lifespan the company trafficked more than half a million enslaved Africans from West and Central Africa to the Americas. This building was the company’s headquarters in its first decades, so it belongs to that history as much as to New York’s.

From lodgings to restoration

The WIC ran into financial trouble and left in 1647 for its own warehouse, the West-Indisch Pakhuis, on the eastern side of the city. After standing empty for years, the Herenmarkt building became a gentlemen’s lodging house, the Nieuwe Zijds Heeren Logement, from 1660. In 1825 it became a home for orphans and older residents. Later renovations removed the high front staircase and plastered the facade, and a textile wholesaler, De Vries van Buuren, used the building for a time.

A fire badly damaged the building in 1975. A foundation set up the following year restored it between 1978 and 1981, at a cost of 12 million guilders. During that work, a fountain with a bronze statue of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch director-general of New Netherland, by sculptor Hans Bayens, was placed in the courtyard. After the restoration the building held housing for older people and served as a municipal wedding hall. It is now a protected monument.

Event rooms and capacity

The venue describes the building as a freestanding landmark on the Haarlemmerstraat with a romantic inner garden and three large rooms, plus a smaller meeting room. It hosts weddings, dinners, receptions, corporate events and private parties such as baby showers.

Space	Size	Capacity	Character
Schutterszaal	150 m²	Up to 250	Largest room; green tones and a large fireplace
Admiraalszaal	150 m²	Up to 200	Wooden floors, courtyard view, chandeliers, marble landing and its own foyer
Compagnieszaal	91 m²	Up to 120	Ground floor; marble floor, red beams, large fireplace, courtyard view, next to a foyer
Piketkamer	Not listed	Meeting group	First floor; large oval table, big screen, air conditioning
Binnenplaats (courtyard)	Not listed by the venue	Not listed by the venue	Sheltered courtyard with fountain; used as the entrance year-round

Sizes and capacities from the venue’s website. Maximum numbers usually depend on the layout, so confirm them for your setup.

Third-party venue directories sometimes list different figures, such as a smaller Admiraalszaal or a courtyard for up to 300 people. Treat those as approximate and get the current numbers from the venue before you sign anything.

Visiting without an event

You don’t need to book a room to see the building. Visitors can walk into the courtyard to see the Stuyvesant statue, and the facade on the Herenmarkt is easy to photograph from the square.

Café Nieuw Amsterdam, in the same building on the corner of the Haarlemmerstraat and the Herenmarkt, is the easiest way to spend time inside. It opens daily at 11:00 and the kitchen opens at 12:00. It closes at midnight Sunday to Thursday and at 01:00 on Friday and Saturday. Groups of 13 to 30 book by email ([email protected]). The café refers groups of more than 30 to the event venue.

The John Adams Institute, which promotes cultural exchange between the Netherlands and the United States, is also based in the building. It runs talks with American authors, scientists and other speakers, so check its program if you want to attend an event in this historic setting.

Booking an event

• Contact the venue at [email protected] or +31 (0)20 625 7528.
• Share your guest count and format (seated dinner, reception or meeting), since capacity depends on the layout.
• Ask about catering. The venue lists the caterer Matter of Taste alongside Café Nieuw Amsterdam, and the team says it can help organize everything from dinners to fully catered baby showers.
• If you want to use the courtyard, have a backup plan for rain, as in any Amsterdam outdoor space.

How to get there

The building is at Herenmarkt 99, just north of the Haarlemmerstraat between the Herengracht and the Brouwersgracht. Search for “Het West-Indisch Huis” or “Herenmarkt 99” in your map app. The café’s address is Haarlemmerstraat 75.

• From Schiphol Airport: take a direct NS train to Amsterdam Centraal. The trip takes about 17 minutes, and e-tickets start at 5.50 euros.
• From Amsterdam Centraal: walk west along Prins Hendrikkade into the Haarlemmerstraat. After you cross the Herengracht, the Herenmarkt is on your right. The walk takes about 10 to 15 minutes.
• By tram: the nearest major stop is Nieuwezijds Kolk, served by lines 2, 17 and 24 at the time of writing. From there it’s a short walk north.
• By bike: the Haarlemmerstraat is busy with pedestrians, so park your bike and walk the last stretch.
• By taxi: licensed Dutch taxis have blue license plates. Expect traffic in the canal belt, and ask to be dropped at the Herenmarkt.

Frequently asked questions