During the 19th century and early 20th century, Mosenthals was the largest company in Port Elizabeth. The erection of its elegant head office and stores on the corner of Jetty Street and North Union Street was emblematic of their exalted status.
Much of this information for this blog has been provided by the Technical Editor, Blaine McCleland as well as the books of Margaret Harradine.
Main picture: Initial building of Mosenthals probably close to the landing beaches
A brief sketch
In her excellent book Port Elizabeth: the Social Chronicle, Margaret Harradine, states that in November 1842 “the merchant firm of Mosenthal’s was established here. German-born Joseph Mosenthal came to Cape Town in 1839. After a return visit to his home in Kassel, he brought out his brother Adolph and established a branch of their business in P.E. Adolph travelled to Turkey in 1856 to bring back Angora goats. Joseph (1861) and a third brother, Julius (1858-1859), represented the Eastern Divisions in the Legislative Council. The firm was a household name until the 1950s”. [PESC]
The Mosenthal’s family was undoubtedly seminal in the development of not only Port Elizabeth but the adjacent hinterland. In many aspects their arrival was also providential as the ingredients of the future business were in plain sight but it took a farsighted individual who could stitched together the elements and create the supply chain, develop the overseas marketing channels and improve the sheep breeds.
The first building
Mosenthal’s Port Elizabeth office was the first substantial establishment to open in the Eastern Cape after Frederick Korsten’s extensive enterprise at Cradock Place in the early 1800s. All of the other businesses were essential one-man operations employing family members or, at best, employing several non-family members as employees.
Mosenthal’s explosive growth required the construction of larger buildings to cater for their needs. The first such building is that shown above. It is a painting by Thomas William Bowler. What is intriguing is its exact location. Even though no aspect accords with the any extant drawings or paintings, Carol Victor, the Afrikaner Librarian at the Nelson Mandela Metro Library, believes that the building could only have been located close to the landing beaches on Fleming Street or nearby. Both Blaine and I concur with her assessment, but I place it close to the Phoenix Hotel.
The flags on the flagpole above the store denote which ships were in the harbour under the agency of the Mosenthal Brothers. This scene is rounded out compositionally by Bowler’s excellent population of the scene with people, oxen, and dogs. This painting is a component of Bowler’s collection entitled Port Elizabeth, from The Mosenthal Establishments Commission. It is signed, dated 1858 and inscribed with the title ‘The Port Elizabeth Office’ on the mount.
The Mosenthal collection
Included in the collection are six watercolours from The Mosenthal Establishments Commission. In late 1856, Julius Mosenthal decided to commemorate the Mosenthal Establishments and commissioned Bowler to create seven watercolours depicting its properties and business ventures. These watercolours showcase the early development of streets and buildings in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, as well as the bustling activity in the various Mosenthal-owned trading posts in outposts such as Graaff-Reinet, Murraysburg, and Hope Town.
Buildings in Queen Street
In tracking down these buildings, Harradine’s two epic books on Port Elizabeth, were vital and indispensable in providing their location. Among their buildings Harradine lists two stores in Queen Street built in 1860 and 1880 (No 53 & 55 Queen Street near Palmerston Road, diagonally opposite the Baptist Church, HCWC pg. 215). Detective work and sleuthing work by Blaine McCleland provides the details of the exact location of these buildings. As Queen Street commenced at Russel Road, Mosenthal’s buildings were located only several hundred metres further on. In the early days, the toll gate indicating the entrance to the town, was positioned outside the Baptist Church.
HCWC
Zooming in. and numbering according to the 2nd HCWC photo you end up with No 61 on the north side of Palmerston Road whereas the GOAD map of 1955 shows No 61 to be on the south side. I have seen numbering anomalies of the GOAD map before which could explain the anomaly. Nevertheless, I think that is the building, 2 doors down from Palmerston Rd. Furthermore, the position of the telephone pole outside the rightmost Mosenthal store is very similar in both photos.
On the GOAD map 53,55 and 57 are shown to be owned by Lennons which correlates to an entry in the Social Chronicle:
Jul.1857 Berry Gray Lennon took over Dr Dunsterville’s business as an apothecary or chemist. In 1871 he took Revell Anthony Fairclough as his partner and formed B.G. Lennon and Co. The firm eventually occupied two fine buildings in Main Street, the first, opened in January 1883, was designed by W.H. Miles, and the second, designed by G.W. Smith, opened in August 1892. The laboratory was later in Queen Street in Mosenthal’s old building and an adjoining one was built in 1927. [PESC]
Store and Head Office
This building, opened on 5 February 1903, is dealt with in a separate blog.
Other Stores in the City
There were also two fine stores in the City. The first was built in 1909 at the end of Baakens Street,where it joins North Union Street. According to Redgrave (pg.94) it was a feather store. It later became Nelson Pearson’s premises as seen in the photo. The other was a handsome wool and mohair store completed 30 June 1910 on the corner of Military Road and North Union Street. In c1935, Bulbring Bros, hardware and tool retailers/wholesalers, took a lease on the building and later bought it. It was demolished for the Settlers Freeway in the 1970s.
Clothing factory
WW2 had profound negative consequences for wholesale operations. With imports severely restricted, South African industry used its ingenuity to manufacture substitute and replacement items for those now unavailable. Despite imperfections, to a marked degree industry succeeded. After the conclusion of the war, this trend continued while they simultaneously diversified their product range. As a consequence, 75% to 80% of the merchandise stocked by these wholesale merchants was being locally manufactured. The threat posed to companies such as Mosenthal’s was that the production lines were constructed mainly in the Witwatersrand, and to a lessor extent in Cape Town and Durban.
Moreover a complementary pattern began to emerge in the distribution system. Prior to the war when the majority of merchandise was imported, it was logical that the distribution system was located at the coastal towns. With source of he product being in the hinterland, the old distribution system based at the coast became non-functional. The driver of this system had to be transferred from the coastal towns to the reef.
In was during this period of confusion and reorganisation that Port Elizabeth lost its importance as a distribution centre to Johannesburg. By 1961 the Directors were faced with a momentous but painful decision of the existential type. Mosenthals was compelled to accede to market realities and relocate their operations to the Reef.
In accepting the economic realities, in 1947 Mosenthal’s made their first foray into manufacturing by establishing its first manufacturing operation, Valley Textiles, in the Baakens Valley. This was a fundamental departure from its previous wholesale operations.
In order to identify which building in the Baakens Valley represented this factory, I called upon the services of my brother, Blaine, who is technical director of this blog. Once again, I can proclaim that he once again has earned his salary which is R0 per month. In providing the answer, he has stretched the original picture to compact the gables in order to make them look more like the postcard. He contends that there are 3 significant features that correspond. There are also the 3 skylights and ventilators per roof. Perhaps it was originally a store requiring no windows and later when it was converted into a factory, they added windows in front and back
Sources
Carol Victor, Afrikaner Librarian, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Library
Hills Covered with Cottages: Port Elizabeth’s Lost Streetscapes by Margaret Harradine (2010, Express Copy & Print, Port Elizabeth) [HCWC]
Port Elizabeth: A Social Chronicle to the end of 1945 by Margaret Harradine (1996, E H Walton (Packaging (Pty) Ltd, Port Elizabeth, on behalf of the Historical Society of Port Elizabeth). [PESC]
Port Elizabeth, in Bygone Days by J.J. Redgrave (1947, Rustica Press) [PEinBD]
Thomas Bowler: His Life and Work by Frank R Bradlow et al, (1967, Cape Town: A A Balkema) [HL&W]
Assistance in identifying the Mosenthal Clothing Factory building was provided by Blaine McCleland, Ralph West and Garth Sampson
Port Elizabeth: From a Border Garrison Town to a Modern and Industrial City edited by Ramon Lewis Leigh (1966, Felstar Publishers, Johannesburg) [PEBGT]
Blaine Farrinton McCleland [BFM]