Across the street, the small History Museum offers a glimpse of old Haarlem. During the city’s Golden Age four centuries ago, Haarlem was a thriving commercial center rivaling Amsterdam. Back then, the town was a port on the large Haarlemmer Lake, with the North Sea only about five miles away (threatened by floods, residents eventually diverted the lake into canals to preserve shipping business, and then pumped the remaining land dry). As well as being Holland’s tulip capital, Haarlem was a manufacturing center producing wool, silk, lace, damask cloth, furniture, smoking pipes (along with cheap, locally grown tobacco), and mass quantities of beer. Haarlemmers were notorious consumers of beer. It was a popular breakfast drink, and the average person drank six pints a day.
