These impressive gates, a survival from old Parktown, are to be seen at Helpmekaar Girls High or as it is now called, Rand Girls High School, at corner of Empire Road and Melle Street Parktown. The gates were once the pride of the Parktown house Friedaura, one of the original grand Parktown mansions but sadly demolished in the late 1960s. The gates are all that remains.
The mansion was an extraordinary confection; the style was Art Nouveau. The architecture brought the latest fashionable European turn of the century style to Johannesburg, the young town on the Highveld. The architects, clearly entranced by the curvilinear flourishes in flowers and tendrils, were Hermann Kallenbach and his partner of the time, Arthur Reynolds. The date was circa 1903/04 (the date on the porte cochère was 1904).
East Elevation of Friedaura
The suburb of Parktown was established in the 1890s by the Braamfontein Company, an offshoot of the H Eckstein group of companies (familiarly known as Corner House). The style of architecture was fluid and eclectic – with an emphasis on grand reception rooms, entertainment and garden follies. They were the homes of the men who had made their fortunes in the new gold mining town – in mining or banking, merchandising or the professions. Herbert Baker came to the Transvaal with a brief from...
