1624 is the date engraved on a stone in the cellars, but since then the house has been altered many times. The shop opened its doors during the seventeenth century and served victuals and beverages for the sea-going ships. The captains could order and taste the samples downstairs, upstairs in the warehouse the goods were neatly arranged and brought to the ships by small boats. The harbor was practically in front of the door at that time. The shop is one of the very scarce 17th-century interiors in the Netherlands where authentic details can still be seen. Painter Rembrandt van Rijn worked and lived nearby (Rembrandthuis) and used to drop in during the afternoon He was always enchanted by the way the light broke, due to all the small windows. Then there was Michiel Adriaans zoon de Ruyter who lived just around the corner. It is due to this house that his sea voyages became world-famous. Practically each of his journeys started here. The last few hundred years the house has been more or less in isolation because the trade moved to other parts of the town. In the 20th century, the house was not used for several decades. The present owners bought the house over two decades ago, they found the house full of dust and spider webs but unchanged by the time.