In 1840, 5,903 people lived on Scheveningen and there were 489 houses. So on average 12 people lived in a house, which was a lot even before that time. Today there are about 25,000 houses on Scheveningen with 56,000 inhabitants. The seaside resort of Scheveningen was created when a bath house was built, where the Kurhaus can now be found. Other countries already had spas by the sea and Jacob Pronk, who believed in the healing properties of seawater, felt that the Netherlands could not stay behind. The fishing industry, on which Scheveningen depended, also deteriorated. Pronk had found a new source of income and soon more and more wealthy tourists came to Scheveningen.