Sleepstraat 170

In February 1883, the copper smithy and the Van de Woestijne family moved to Sleepstraat, first to number 96 and then to 106, a townhouse with a garden and larger workshop (now 170). Karel lived there until he was twenty-two. When he was twelve, his father died, and his mother, assisted by her children, took over the management of the business. Antigona Sielbo was a businesswoman, "who was not happy" and had little relationship with him. A bronze plaque was placed on December 6, 1954, at the initiative of the VTB and the supreme deanery, on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the poet's death. It features a medallion by Jozef Cantré and the text: "This is the ancestral home of Karel van de Woestijne," followed by the first two lines of Het Vader-huis, the poet's debut collection (1903):
"The house of my father, where the days were slower, was quiet, as it lay in the shadows of the gardens."

Literair Gent