Grand Mansions

No. 43 St David’s Road had a modest start, being built for one Edwin Hawkes in 1908 at the time of the gold rush. The architect is believed to be Robert Howden who was known for being a Classic revivalist and whose work shows a Beaux-Arts approach. Hawkes sold it to Julius Wertheim sometime around 1915. Wertheim was a solicitor and notary and was very much involved in the community (an attribute which seems to have rubbed off on the present owner). No. 43 was then sold to the Hunt family in the mid-1920’s, during whose tenure the evolution of the property into its current form began in earnest!

The Hunts bought a single storey home which then proceeded to grow in parallel with the fortunes of the family firm, Williams Hunt Chevrolet (in old Eloff Street). It first gained elegant gables on the north façade, and then a short while later the entire roof came off and a second storey was added (with the gables being elevated to keep up with the new roof!) and the lantern was put in place above the new staircase. The grand Burmese teak staircase was installed running up the centre of the entrance hall and wrapping round to a gallery, and with American rosewood panelling downstairs and upstairs. This was all orchestrated by an Australian architect friend of the family, George White – quite a visionary achievement.

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Tracey's Folly is one of Johannesburg's great historic mansions. In the article below, jounalist Lucille Davie unpacks the history of the magnificent property. The piece was originally published on the City of Joburg's website on 7 January 2010. Click here to view more of Davie's work. Main image via Yeudakn on Wikicommons.

Percival Tracey always got home in his car, but not in the usual way.

“Inevitably the car often broke down and Tracey, sitting behind the wheel, would complete the journey inspanned to a team of oxen. His family called the enterprise ‘Tracey’s Folly’,” records Nigel Helme in Thomas Major Cullinan: a biography.

Tracey was driving home to his 40-room, three-storey house in Mountain View. The mansion was completed in 1907, and Tracey moved in with his family. It was the only house on the rocky ridge, its sparkling white Cape Dutch gables, tall brick chimneys, and long wraparound veranda visible from miles around.

Visible for miles around (The Heritage Portal)

 
Tracey was a mining magnate, and his mansion compared admirably with other Randlords’ splendid homes - Northwards, Dolobran, Arcadia, among others in Parktown.

Northwards (The Heritage Portal)

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I think Heritage Portal readers will be interested in my archival sleuthing. I have found the blueprint of the original plan for the Parktown home Gordon Leith designed in 1927. Then called Morgenzon for the Coddingtons and built in 3rd Avenue Parktown, Johannesburg. The name changed to Le Tholonet and the house became the home of Clive and Irene Mennell after World War II. It was with great sadness that we reported the loss of this fine heritage home to fire in July 2018 (click here to view report).

The remains of Le Tholonet (Kathy Munro)

The plan I have located is an old blueprint and is important as it proves that this was a Gordon Leith design. Close study of the plans shows elevations and sections, materials to be used, what the original home would look like and all the technical details relating to vents, waste water, chimney and flue etc. There were later alterations but the house remained essentially true to the ideas of Leith.

...

Fire is the most destructive and frightening of all elements. A Johannesburg heritage home in Parktown, Le Tholonet, at 6 3rd Avenue, was lost to fire on 17th July 2018. On Wednesday this week Clive Chipkin and I embarked on an expedition to discover and if possible photograph Parktown and Saxonwold homes of a certain period. We were in search of the Cape Dutch architectural style and its variants in the old elite northern suburbs of Johannesburg.

In the case of Le Tholonet (definitely in Cape Dutch style) we particularly wished to pin down and discuss the glorious central gable of the heritage  home with its first floor lovers balcony, bedrooms at first floor level tucked under thatched eaves and the distinctive chimneys. Imagine our surprise and dismay to discover that the house has been lost to fire. The gates were ajar and it took us a moment or two to realize that all was not right. Only a shell of isolated walls remains. We were confronted by a scene of blackened destruction: burnt remains, blackened walls and collapsed floorboards. The security man on duty (once we had introduced ourselves and presented our credentials) told us that a massive fire had destroyed almost all of this beautiful home. His account was that there had been an electrical fault and with a thatch roof there was little hope of saving the home. On Wednesday, workmen were everywhere removing the debris, the charred remains and fractured black timbers. Twisted metal lay everywhere. Heaps of scrap, burnt out timber, iron, remains of ceiling boards and wooden library shelves piled up on the front lawn.

The home has a listing on the...

The wonderful article below, written by journalist Lucille Davie, looks at the history and preservation of one of Joburg's grandest historic mansions. The piece first first appeared on the City of Johannesburg's website on 23 March 2004. Click here to view more of Davie's work.

Lionel Phillips would surely approve of the new developments at his former mansion, Villa Arcadia, in Parktown. The house and property of 16 acres of prime real estate has been bought by Hollard Insurance and is to be developed into their future office complex with a careful balance between heritage and modern use.
 
And in the process, the mansion, designed by Herbert Baker, and believed to be his practice run for the Union Buildings in Pretoria, is to be saved from almost certain destruction.

A landmark historic mansion (The Heritage Portal)

 
Construction has begun, and residents would have noticed a large sandy scar and earth movers at the entrance to the mansion, on Oxford Road. Hollard expects to move into their new offices in October 2005.

Phillips, a wealthy Randlord and chairman of the influential Central Mining & Investment Corporation and president of the Chamber of Mines, moved with his family between England and Johannesburg between the early 1890s and 1914, in all living in the city for 12...

A few years ago, the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation organised a rare tour inside the iconic Parktown mansion Dolobran. Journalist and Johannesburg enthusiast, Lucille Davie was there and compiled the wonderful article below (originally published in the Saturday Star on 3 January 2015). Click here to view more of Davie's work.

For so long I have been infatuated with this house, peeping from between the trees and tall bamboo at the start of Oxford Road. That whimsical, eclectic mansion Dolobran. Recently I took a rare public tour of the house, which stares defiantly across the freeway at Herbert Baker’s more staid but still grand Northwards.

Northwards (The Heritage Portal)

Baker, Cecil John Rhodes’s favourite architect, has left his impressive footprint in the city with homes and churches dotted around the suburbs, as well as his own home, Stonehouse, not far from Northwards. Baker’s buildings are scattered around the country too, including the magisterial Union Buildings. 

Stonehouse (The Heritage Portal)

Pierneef Painting of the...

A few years ago, Bev Young compiled this article on the spectacular Cock's Castle in Port Alfred. The piece was originally published in the newpaper Eastern Cape Today on 21 January 2010. Bev is one of the Eastern Cape's most prolific and passionate researchers. 

Established in about 1840, the nearly 30,000 m² Richmond House property, formerly known as "The Castle", hangs tenaciously on the east face of Wesley Hill. It is an impressive estate, were yesteryear still lingers like an untouchable perfume fragrance, so familiar, yet so titillating. Situated in dense indigenous virgin bush, the historical property stands guard over the Kowie River mouth, where it all started with the arrival of the intrepid 1820 settlers. Among them was the Honourable William Cock, a wealthy Cornish printer and man of great ability and strength of character, who brought the Industrial Revolution to the Eastern Cape in the 19th century.

Old view of Cock's Castle (source unknown)

A distant view of Cock's Castle with newer buildings on the right (Bev Young)

Sue and Neville Gordon, who own the property...

Strubenheim is a majestic historic mansion in Rosebank, Cape Town. It belonged to Harry Struben who, along with his brother Fred, played a crucial part in the story of the discovery of the largest goldfield on earth. Although they cannot claim to have discovered the Witwatersrand's main reef, it was their pioneering efforts on the Confidence Reef nearby that drew others to Langlaagte where the big discovery was made (click here for further details). Earlier this year mining historian Rod Kruger and Struben descendent Adam Struben visited Strubenheim. They managed to explore all the nooks and crannies of this historic gem including the rarely accessed main tower!  We are very grateful that they decided to send us a few of their magnificent photographs. Text by Rod Kruger.

Rod Kruger and Adam Struben on top of the Strubenheim Tower

Strubenheim was the masterpiece built by Harry Struben when he made the big time! In size and luxury it compares with Downton Abby of BBC series fame, with huge rooms, magnificent fireplaces, imposing staircases and generous servants quarters. 

Strubenheim (Rod Kruger)

I enjoyed looking at photos of the original furniture showing the opulent tastes of the time...

Forest Hall is an historic estate located in The Crags near Plettenberg Bay. It hosts a spectrum of high end functions including grand weddings and corporate events (click here for some recent pics). In the article below, first published in Restorica in 1977, Patricia Storrar delves into the history of this unique property. Thank you to the Heritage Association of South Africa and the University of Pretoria for giving us permission to publish.

It is impossible to write the story of Forest Hall, a spacious old house standing in the heart of forested land some 23 kilometres east of Plettenberg Bay, without sketching briefly the history of the man who built it more than a century ago. Because it was the character of this man and the background from which he came which determined emphatically the size and style of the house and the setting in which it was placed. 

In June 1847 young William Henry Newdigate, third son of Francis Newdigate and his wife, Lady Barbara Maria Legge, daughter of the third Earl of Dartmouth, arrived to put down his roots in the green Piesang Valley, Plettenberg Bay. A scion of one of the oldest and most distinguished families in Britain, he could trace his ancestry back on the paternal side through a long line of noble Newdigates - among whom titles abounded - to the 15th century. The Newdigate ancestral seat was - and still is today - Arbury Hall, Nuneaton, Warwickshire. William and two of his brothers were born at Astley Castle, the seat of...

The following brief history of Windybrow, one of Johannesburg's great historic mansions, was compiled by B.L. Grant and appeared in the 1979 edition of the Johannesburg Historical Foundation's Journal 'Between the Chains'. The house is now home to the Windybrow Centre of the Arts (previously the Windybrow Theatre). Notices on the Centre’s website and facebook page indicate that it is closed for renovations and organisational ‘stabilisation’. 

Windybrow, one of the last remaining mansions in Doornfontein, was the home of Theodore Reunert, founder of the engineering firm of Reunert and Lenz.

Doornfontein was a farm which stretched from End Street to Bedford View some six miles and was owned by F. Bezuidenhout who bought it in 1879, paying a span of oxen and a trek chain for it. The son, Barend Bezuidenhout, gradually sold the land to accommodate the rapidly expanding town.

Doornfontein was laid out as a township in 1889, largely by the Corner House Group, and it is thus one of Johannesburg’s oldest suburbs. Many of the mining magnates who developed the gold mines and the mining finance houses lived here- the Ecksteins, Sir George Albu, Theodore Reunart, Cecil Rhodes, John Hays Hammond (later Vice-President of the USA) and others. In 1900 most of these people moved to Parktown.

The Reunerts moved into Windybrow in 1896 and named the house after the home of the poet, Robert Southey, in the Lake District. It was designed by William Leck in a pseudo-Tudor style of architecture. The fittings and furnishings were brought...