In 1890, the Amsterdam Housing Association purchased the cheap land outside the city on the Amsteldijk to build healthy housing for the workers. In those days the land formed part of the polder district of Nieuwer-Amstel and the small houses were standing in the green meadows. Beer brewer Heineken was part of the foundation board that commissioned the building. Heineken was married to a British woman and inspired by British Idealism of the times he decided to build for his employees little cottages in the countryside where they would enjoy a better quality of life. The dog days didn’t last for long, though. Five years after the construction of the cottages, Amsterdam city annexed large parts of Nieuwer-Amstel and the picturesque romantic houses got surrounded by higher, urban buildings.