Brandweermuseum Wassenaar (fire brigade museum)

In Wassenaar, the green oasis of the Randstad, you will find an interesting fire fighting museum in the basement of town hall De Paauw. The museum, founded in 1923 in the then police station cum fire station on the Van Zuylen van Nijeveltstraat, houses a unique, complete collection of historical material on firefighting in Wassenaar.

In Wassenaar, the green oasis of the Randstad, located between Leiden and The Hague, you will find the Wassenaar Fire Brigade Museum in the basement of De Paauw town hall. The museum houses a unique, complete collection of historical material on 300 years of firefighting in Wassenaar. This unique collection was first housed in the barracks on Pieter Twentlaan, the former coach house (belonging) to the De Paauw estate. The museum collection was given a permanent home in the basement of the town hall in 1991. A unique piece of Wassenaar history, founded and operated by the Wassenaar fire brigade. The collection gives a very good picture of firefighting from the very beginning until the late 1980s in Wassenaar and is well worth a visit.

Unique collection
The fire museum was founded in October 1923 by the then fire chief G.J. van der Mark. It was during this period that motorised fire fighting equipment was switched en masse throughout the Netherlands. In those days, ‘obsolete’ equipment was simply thrown away. Commander van der Mark saw the historical value of this equipment and managed to save a lot of equipment. Many of the handheld fire engines and other materials used in Wassenaar over the centuries have thus been preserved. Truly a unique collection.