A different view on current affairs & history
None of the early records have escaped the ravages of times. Fortunately for history, this bleak situation has been somewhat mitigated by the first pupils recalling the first years.
With the assistance of these reminiscences, one can obtain an intimate view of what it was like to be one of the initial batch of pupils 144 years ago in 1874.
In this blog, four founding pupils will share their experiences.
Main picture: Miss Virginia Lavinia Isitt, Headmistress from 1874 to 1886
By the 1870s the stark fact was that the girls in Port Elizabeth were receiving a second-rate education at the various private seminaries with their untrained and unqualified teachers. With the demand for quality education glaringly obvious, the residents called into question the lack of a sound establishment under a competent and qualified staff of cultured ladies. The residents’ hopes were realised when on Friday 19th September 1873, a notice appeared in the local newspaper announcing the establishment of a girls’ school.
This would culminate in the birth of the prestigious girls’ school: Collegiate. Like all such endeavours, it would not emerge fully formed as it development would proceed through numerous iterations.
Main picture: No. 15 Western Road with its white front wall and white bay window, the original Collegiate School (looking up Whitlock Street).
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Many of Port Elizabeth’s historic gems such as the Custom’s House have already faced the demolisher’s wrecking ball yet the more compelling danger to Port Elizabeth’s magnificent architectural heritage, is not the building’s outright destruction, but rather inappropriate renovations which wrench these buildings from their historical and social taproots, transforming them into anodyne objects divorced from their past.
For me, the amber light of caution has ineluctably been switched to red as unscrupulous developers and renovators take no heed either of the original design of the structure or the materials used in its construct-ion. In such a callous manner is this irreplaceable heritage being flushed away, substituted by architecture shorn of its historical roots.
This is a plea – nay clarion call – not for vigilance but action to stem the tide of ahistorical renovations couched in terms of restoration. For not to do so, will forever doom this jewel to its gradual but ultimate destruction.
Main picture: Many sins of omission and commission were committed in the restoration of these terraced houses in Donkin Street
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For the purposes of this blog, the architectural styles from the Late Georgian, in which No 7 Castle Hill was constructed, to the Edwardian Style which predominated from 1890 to 1914, will be covered. Unfortunately, many of these structures are being demolished, altered or “renovated” in such a way that their original character is lost. Perhaps, in a small measure, one’s understanding of the various styles will culminate in their appreciation and hence a desire to preserve them.
Also briefly discussed is the step-change in the architectural elegance of the second generation of commercial buildings constructed in Main Street.
Main picture: Fleming House at 20 Bird Street is a good example of architecture in the Regency Style
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Noted more for its solitude and friendly demeanour and none of the city’s hustle and bustle and other vices, yet this quaint village has suffered its fair share of the most heinous crime over the course of its existence.
This blog deals with the second of them; the murder of Mr JJ Janssen. Like the first murder in Schoenmakerskop, it was committed in the residence of the local tearoom. However, unlike the first slaying in which the motive was purely robbery with murder as a consequence, in stark contrast, this one bore the hallmarks of baser emotions: a premeditated vicious murder.
Main picture: Johannes Jacobus Jansen
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From a pristine lagoon in 1820 to an industtrial area in forty years, is how long it took to destroy this once virgin wilderness. Unlike the Settlers, the previous inhabitants of this area, the Khoisan, without any discernible desire at building permanent structures, left no detectable evidence of their presence in the area over eons.
As my blog entitled “Port Elizabeth of Yore: What Happened to the Baakens Lagoon? deals with the why and how the lagoon was reclaimed, instead this blog will focus on the conversion of this normally placid waterway and bush covered hill into the epicentre of industrial development within the restricted confines of the valley floor.
Main picture: The bridge across the Baakens in 1866 before the flood showing the lagoon [Redgrave]
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Now considered an anachronism, but in the 19th century, the market was a millennia old method of connecting buyers and seller without the intermediation of shops. It occupied a pivotal place in the towns of yore, culturally and economically, normally being located at the centre of the town. So it was in the case of Port Elizabeth.
Main picture: Market Square with bullock carts
Tempis fugit – Time flies. I am unsure whether one would refer to the 50th anniversary of this building’s demolition as its golden anniversary, but I can vividly recall the floods of 1968 and this building even though I never once used the facilities.
Probably one of the only elegant buildings constructed in Humewood during the turn of the century, it evinced an era of formality in beach attire more akin for modern day formal attire.
Main picture: Humewood Bathing House in the background
The building located on the corner of Main and Jetty Streets, once formed a prominent part not only of the history of Port Elizabeth, but also the elegance of Market Square.
In 1978, was demolished to make way for a bus station.
Main picture: Market Square in 1882
In today’s edition of the American Journal, The Atlantic, James Fallows’ article “It’s Been an Open Secret All Along” raises the preternatural possibility that Trump was voted in as President in spite of it being an open secret that Trump was not only unqualified to perform the job but also rank incompetent.
What warning indicators were blinking ominously and why do intelligent commentators ignore those signals?
Main picture: Donald Trump with former Chief Strategist Steve Bannon in more amicable times