On Jan. 31, 1871, the Van Gogh family moved into the stately minister's house diagonally across from the Protestant church. It was a "free house with a garden and a piece of land for the cultivation of potatoes. Vincent no longer lived at home and his sister Anna also left the parental nest for a long time; the other children lived mostly with their parents. Theo initially goes to school in Oisterwijk, while Wil, Lies and Cor are taught at home by a governess. When Theo works in Brussels and Vincent learns that he is staying in Helvoirt, Vincent longs to be home with all of them.
Vincent himself never lived in Helvoirt, but he traveled to visit his parents on holidays and during vacations. Thanks to letters from Vincent and his family, it is known that he stayed "at home" several times. Usually he stayed there for a few days, sometimes longer. After celebrating Christmas 1872 with his parents, he wrote in March 1873: "If I can, I will go to Helvoirt at Easter".
A month after Easter, he returns to the village to say hello before moving on to his new employer in London. That year, Vincent is unable to return home for Christmas due to busy business. In 1874 he was granted longer leave; he then stayed in Helvoirt from June 27 to July 14, and at Christmas he also stayed at the rectory.
The rectangular house with a gable roof is white plastered and has a deep garden with a vegetable garden and fruit trees. Upon entering, the sitting room is on the left and behind it is the dining room. To the right of the center hallway is Theodorus' study. The house on Kerkstraat, later Torenstraat, has an eighteenth-century appearance. However, the house was built as early as 1657, by the head of the Catholic St. Gertrudis Abbey in Leuven. It then also owned the old church and owned church property. Protestants negotiate that the abbey may keep these goods after the Eighty Years' War in exchange for a residence and salary of a preacher. It remains a preacher's residence until 1954. The property is restored several times, having been thoroughly refurbished around 1979 and 1988.
When Vincent stayed in Helvoirt, he was not yet an artist, but he was already drawing. During the summer weeks of 1874 he was quite productive, after his return to London he wrote: "My appetite for drawing has ceased again here in England, but perhaps one day I shall have a fit again. He chooses subjects in his immediate surroundings; even the parsonage is recorded on paper. His mother writes to Theo: "Vincent has drawn quite a lot. In front of Lies, the bedroom window, and a bit of the front door, so that part of the house - he stood to the side of Jans' little house, 't has turned out sweetly.
