On September 24th 2015 our private party decided on a Heritage day treat. An excursion for four friends by car to the Sammy Marks House museum. Zwartkoppies Hall was the home of Sammy Marks and his English wife, Bertha (née Guttmann). They lived there between 1884 and 1909, when they moved to their house in Parktown. Thereafter during Sammy’s lifetime it was their country weekend retreat. Sammy Marks died in 1920. It was then that Bertha gave up their Johannesburg home and returned to live formally at Zwartkoppies until her death in 1934.
As a result of the legal device of entail built into the will of Sammy Marks (and there were two wills, ultimately both declared legally valid) the house passed on to the children who had the right of residence, but not sale. This is the fascination of the story – a family, a magnetic energetic patriarch, a successful business empire, the power of a will and the survival of period home. The home is now a museum. Its survival has been extraordinary. It is a special place frozen in the time of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras and captures the gracious lifestyle of an estate on the Transvaal Highveld.
Bertha Marks
This extraordinary family home is on what was once the farm Zwartkoppies, located some 23 kms east of Pretoria, a short distance from...
