The building of the Joke Smit College

The building of the Joke Smit College was opened in 1926, then the Municipal Girls' Lyceum, meeting the growing need to provide girls in Amsterdam with access to university education. The architect was likely the chief architect of Public Works, Nicolaas Lansdorp, assisted by Bernard Lubbers. Located on Reijnier Vinkeleskade - within Berlage's Plan Zuid - the building remains to this day one of the best-preserved examples of a school building in the Amsterdam School style. Sculptures by Hildo Krop (1884-1970) were placed on the exterior facade.

Use of the building

After the Girls' Lyceum stopped in 1968 and was absorbed by the Gerrit van der Veen School Community due to mergers and educational reforms, the Joke Smit College entered the building in 1984, then still known as the Amsterdam Day-Evening School for Adults. With the name of Joke Smit (1933-1981), the school returned to the idea of women’s emancipation of the two first decades of the twentieth century. No longer for girls from Amsterdam-Zuid, but now for women who discontinued their education due to marriage and motherhood but still in want of obtaining a diploma. This target group also fades away in the nineties. Today, the Joke Smit College provides an essential supplement to regular secondary education in the Amsterdam region for students over the age of eighteen. Those who failed can obtain their diploma through part-time study, students can improve deficient subjects, and 'stack' qualifications, for example, a certified HAVO student comes to the Joke Smit College to obtain a VWO diploma.

Text (and questions): Dicky van der Zalm - website: Hans Drieman and Peter van Leeuwen


Joke Smit College - Reijnier Vinkeleskade 62 - 1071 SX Amsterdam