Map of Paramaribo

Title Leupe: Schetsplan van Paramaribo en de voorstad Combé.

In 1785, on the orders of Governor Wichers, 45 garden plots (no export crops were allowed to be grown on them) of about 50 Surinamese acres each were assigned along the river between Paramaribo and the redoubt Purmerend. They were known as the Combées, a name associated with Nicolaas Combé, an official who had owned a small plantation in this area just north of Fort Zeelandia in the late 17th century. In February 1797 Governor Juriaan François de Friderici (1790-1802) decided to extend the town, and for this purpose, ordered the lands between the Sommelsdijckse Creek and the small plantations given out by Wichers, some 33 acres in all, to be divided into 66 plots and assigned to private buyers. To explain his plan, he sent a 1796 allotment plan to the Netherlands (VEL1717). This is the basis of the map shown here, and it contains the new extension around a central square, as it was originally designed. The latter, however, was never realized. From the beginning the new residential neighbourhood came to be referred to as Combé, but its official name was Voorstad Zeelandia. Shown here is an unfinished plan of the whole town which closely resembles Hiemcke’s large printed map of Paramaribo, Platte Grond van de Stad Paramaribo zoo verre als dezelve tot het jaar 1804 door het Gouvernement aldaar is opgestelt. The suburb is shown in the lower right corner. For the rest of the city, all streetnames are mentioned as are the names of the owners of surrounding parcels.

North is upper right.

Scale-bar of 45 chains = [approximately 1 : 7,200].

Also see VEL1717A and B.