Veenhuizen, Noordenveld
| Veenhuizen | |
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| Village | |
Veenhuizen in 2002
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 Veenhuizen
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| Coordinates: 53°1′58″N 6°23′45″E / 53.03278°N 6.39583°E | |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Province | Drenthe |
| Municipality | Noordenveld |
Veenhuizen (Dutch pronunciation: [veːnˈɦœyzən]) is a village with around 800 inhabitants in the province of Drenthe in the Netherlands. In the early 19th century, a reform housing colony for the poor and homeless was established in Veenhuizen. In the late 19th century, the complex was turned into a penal colony. The village became freely accessible in 1984 and has been part of the municipality of Noordenveld since 1998. The National Prison Museum is located here.
The history of Veenhuizen goes away back in to the late Middle Ages but only as an insignificant hamlet alongside a little stream called the "Slokkert". This was situated a little to the north of the current village.
Change came when the general Johannes van den Bosch started the Maatschappij van Weldadigheid (which translates into Society for Benevolence) in the 1820s. The company bought 30 km² of land to found colonies which would house and provide work for the poor from the large cities in the west of the Netherlands.
Veenhuizen then became a reform housing colony for the poor and homeless from the large cities (like Amsterdam and The Hague). It was, together with a town in Australia, the only colony within a country's own borders.
The change is still evident in the way the village was set up. The village is made up of roads in a grid pattern with blocks measuring 700 by 700 metres, in a style similar to that of American villages. The difference with the United States is that most of these blocks are still filled in with farmland on which the inmates used to work.
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