Below the city wall, opposite the mill, stands the Mill House, which was developed on a plot of land that belonged to a miller named Claes Cornelisz. van Berckel in the late sixteenth century. Interestingly, Claes Cornelisz. was Rembrandt's step-grandfather, as his grandmother remarried following the death of her husband during the siege of Leiden. Multiple buildings on the bird's eye map of Pieter Bast, produced around 1600, were linked to Claes Cornelisz.'s plot of land based on various source materials. By accurately interpreting the map, a reconstruction of the Mill House was possible. To detail the architecture of the Mill House, well-documented examples from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries that still exist in Leiden were carefully selected.
Left: Late 16th century pre-cadastral map of van Dulmanhorst, showing the plot of Claes Cornelisz, miller | Right: Detail of the Bird's Eye View map of Leiden from Pieter Bast, produced circa 1600