We always get excited when we find detailed information on the story behind a blue plaque. The following article about Joachim Nikolaus Von Dessin, whose book collection became the foundation of the first public library in South Africa, was published in a December 1974 edition of The Argus. We stumbled across it in the archives of the Heritage Association of South Africa (HASA).
Of the thousand citizens who have passed the Provincial Administration Building [Cape Town] in the week gone by not more than one or two hundred, I'd wager have noticed the two blue plaques attached to the stone of the structure at the corner of Wale Street and Queen Victoria Street, marking the site of the home in which South Africa's and possibly the world's first free library was put together.
It was at the corner of Wale Street and Garden Street, as Queen Victoria Street was once known, that Joachim Nikolaus Von Dessin, assembled the considerable collection of books and manuscripts which he bequeathed in 1761 to the Nederduitse Gereformeede Kerk on the specific condition that the bequest should be the foundation of a public library for the benefit of everyone.
The bequest also included all his paintings, objects d'art, mathematical and astrological instruments - and a capital sum of 1000 rixdollars, the interest on which was to be used for adding to his collection works dealing with all branches of knowledge.
This capital sum is still in the hands of the Groote Kerk and the interest is paid...
