Wechi

An old saying goes: Si nos no topa na Wechi, nos lo kontra na Souax — "If I don't see you at Wechi, I'll meet you at Souax." In other words: I'll bump into you anyway. Wechi and Suax lie opposite each other at the start of the Weg naar Westpunt.

Fertile pasture land

Wechi, like various neighbouring plantations such as Papaya, Grote and Kleine Berg and Daniel, was split off in the 18th century from the enormous government plantation Malpais. Even after the split-off, Wechi was still often called Klein Malpais. It was once known for its extensive, fertile green pasture lands of a good 133 hectares, where many sheep, goats, and also cows, horses, chickens, ducks and turkeys once roamed. A fairly extensive herd. Wechi was, however, not a profitable plantation business and was regularly burdened with mortgage debts.

Wijt Timmer

The date on the first deed of purchase of Wechi is 11 June 1762: Frans Grootestam van Uytrecht then buys the plantation at an auction from the estate of Wijt Timmer, an 18th-century skipper of whom otherwise only this is known: that he died around 1762 and was married with separation of property to Margaritha de Vijlder. Timmer had in 1748 also become owner of plantation Daniël, which, like Wechi, was for a long time called (Klein) Malpais. The basis of Wechi as we know it now was laid by Grotenstam, who bought various adjoining parcels and merged them into one plantation, namely "Klijn Malpais, with privileges of sheep and goat corrals". Timmer's name gradually displaced the original name Klijn Malpias, however, and ever more often the alias Weijdtie, Het Weijdje, Wijtje, Witchie, Weito, Weitje, Wechi appeared, or "Rustplaats" (resting place) in its stead.

Striddels

After Grotenstam's death, his wife's grandfather, Gerrard Striddels, buys the plantation in 1783 at a public auction. Striddels was a businessman who owned a lot of real estate, such as the monumental building on Molenplein in Otrobanda that first housed the police station and now houses Fundashon Prevenshon for cancer prevention. He also owned the plantations Pannekoek, San Juan, Malpais (alias Terbug a Texel) and Groot and Klein Malpais (alias Mount Pleasant). In 1783 he bought from two businessmen the Canoekje Rust Plaats (later Rustplaats), which bordered Wechi. Rustplaats was "a piece of land or canoekje situated between Groot Piscadera and Wechi, lying all around within its own trankeren (enclosures) with a free patrol road". As at Martha Koosje and a location at Baai Klaas opposite Tera Kora, a "rustplaats" (inn) is said to have stood here too, for overnight stays of travellers from Banda bou to the city and vice versa. From 1783 Rustplaats remained connected with Wechi and they were always sold together. And Wechi got yet another new alias: Rustplaats. Rustplaats, nowadays the south-eastern part of Wechi, also included a parcel on which tax had to be paid to the WIC. In 1844 the owner was granted exemption from payment of this tax.

Company's well

Striddels later sells all his possessions, and Klein Malpais with Rustplaats becomes the property of Jan Teubner, including the "inventory": four enslaved people, the men Fransje, Tapila and Fransisco and the woman Agatha, and an extensive herd consisting of cows, turkeys, donkeys, pigeons as well as 205 sheep, 12 cows, 4 oxen and a bull. Not included in his newly acquired property were the patrol road between Malpais and Rustplaats and the company's well. This well, situated at Wechi and east of the Weg naar Westpunt, belonged to the West India Company. In deeds of conveyance it was always expressly stated that it was not included with the parcel Wechi.

Swapping plantations

After his death, Teubner's son Johannes swaps Klein Malpais and Rustplaats (for 6,000 pesos) for plantation Kas Chikitu (3,000 pesos) with a supplementary payment. The "inventory" now consisted of 12 enslaved people, 100 sheep, 150 goats, 2 riding horses, 2 mares, 6 donkeys, 50 chickens and a batch of pigeons. The other party was Willem van der Dijs, who thereby made an investment for the benefit of his minor son Mathias Erasmus. When the latter came of age in 1812 he sold Malpais and Rustplaats, including contents, to Christoph Godfried Friedrich Hooijer, a skilled German goldsmith who was appointed by the government as district master. Wechi would remain in the hands of the Hooijer family, alias "Hoyer", for a total of 2 centuries.

Lime burning

Unlike Van der Dijs, who later developed Savonet into the most profitable plantation business on Curaçao, Hoyer proved not to be a good planter. The water-rich plantation yielded little to nothing and had high mortgage debts. In the dry years of 1833 and 1834 he asked for a permit to burn lime in order to be able to feed his staff and pay debts. By burning limestone, lime powder was obtained that was used as a building material. Hoyer had earlier already been forced to sell the plantation Papaya, his house in Otrobanda and various enslaved people. Wechi too was sold in 1840 with an enormous mortgage debt. The new owners turned out to be two of his daughters: Johanna Elizabeth and Charlotte Hoyer, who bought the plantation for 605 guilders. 205 guilders were paid in cash, the rest on mortgage credit. Johanna died childless and her share was sold to her brother-in-law, Richard Raven, who was thus married to Charlotte. He too was a goldsmith and also dealt in real estate. Wechi — after a valuation in 1862 worth 4,500 guilders — was then used only as a country house.

King's land

A nephew of Raven's wife, the businessman Richard Joseph Hoyer, later becomes owner of the plantation. In 1895 he buys from the government, for 51 guilders, a piece of domain land, a so-called "Koningsgrond" (King's land) of 2 hectares, west of the "savaan Segoe", east of Wechi and north of the patrol path. With this purchase Wechi reaches its final size of 133 hectares. And since the separation from Malpais it consists of two smaller plantations (Klein Malpais and Rustplaats) and 2 pieces of government land.

Dams and wells

Wechi is particularly water-rich, and many dams were built to hold back the rainwater and let it penetrate into the ground. Behind the dams were many wells, and in connection with this, trial fields were laid out in 1915 for an agricultural project. The results did not prove satisfactory, however. The last owner of Wechi from the Hoyer family was Henry Beaujon, born in 1906 as the eldest son of Jacob Anthon Beaujon and Marie Hoyer. During WWII Henry and his family lived in the landhuis, later using it as a weekend house. Cows still stood in the pasture and a bull in the stable, and later there were even pigsties in the mangasina. In 1991 Wechi was sold again to the Van der Dijs family, which resold it to the then island territory. In 1993 Wechi came into the hands of Fundashon Kas Popular, FKP, for the construction of, among other things, (high-rise) public housing.

The landhuis

The present landhuis, situated in the eastern part of the former plantation, was probably built in the early 19th century. It is reportedly the second landhuis: the first is said to have burnt down and been demolished, after which this second one was built. It was restored a few years ago and now figures on the monuments list as protected heritage. Landhuis Wechi stands on a little hill with, next to it, two — likewise restored — small buildings: a medium-sized storehouse and a smaller space in which tools were probably kept. Behind the landhuis stands a metres-high water reservoir for the household. From here there is also a fine view over Jan Doret, Groot Sint Michiel with its landhuis and the ridge of Boka Sami with the pyramid-shaped Sint Michielsberg, also called Seru Blandan. East of the little landhuis lies the former hofje with various fruit trees, a water tank and two wells, one of which is a pos di pia (walk-in well).

Slave village

West of the little landhuis lie a cattle corral and also a mangasina, most of whose walls still stand proudly. It is divided into a larger part and a smaller compartment, where seeds were probably stored. There are two doorways on the north side of the mangasina, one for each compartment. Close to the mangasina the ruins of a little village stood for a long time, part of which was still inhabited far into the 20th century. On the basis of the Werbata map of 1911 and GPS from more modern times, the Archaeological Working Group managed to trace the foundations of at least 7 clay slave houses. According to the Werbata map, however, 12 little houses still stood here. Through ignorance, or because they lay hidden under abundant vegetation on the spot, unfortunately wiped out by bulldozers on takeover by FKP. Fortunately not everything has been lost: the working group reports in its report that above the bulldozer line, and still intact on the little hill between the landhuis and the Weg naar Westpunt, the foundations of five stone houses and five clay huts still lie. Hopefully this ruin hill will be preserved for proper historical-archaeological research.

Unrest over Rustplaats

The working group also came across foundations of a building that might well be the vanished landhuis Rustplaats. Rustplaats was in the spotlight in 2015 during a court case that the Ferero family (of the opposite Suax and Gato) had brought against the FKP. According to the claimants, FKP acted unlawfully by including this piece of terrain in its parcelling plans because it belonged to the family. Whereupon various experts and the court were given the difficult task of working out, with the help of heavily outdated maps, the precise location and size of Rustplaats at Wechi.