Port Elizabeth of Yore Archives - Page 53 of 71

Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Era of Coaches Draws to a Close

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 11 March 2018 4 Comments

Prior to the advent of the railways, long distance travel was arduous at best and tediously long to boot. Imagine being jolted for days on end on an ox-wagon. Every single depression, or stone protruding from the ground along the way, would be felt. Unlike Europe, the Romans had never constructed roads in South Africa. In the Cape Colony, bush tracks ultimately became the “roads” through usage and not by design.

After the age of the post cart came the coaches, an imported concept from the American Wild West.

Main picture: Geo. Alcock & Sons Coach Builders, Blacksmiths & Farriers, Korsten, Port Elizabeth

Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Introduction of Air Flight

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 9 March 2018 1 Comment

It can safely be presumed that the residents of Port Elizabeth were equally as fascinated at the concept of air flight as the rest of South Africa. As a testament to that allure was the great fanfare that Allister Miller’s flight from Cape Town in 1917 engendered.

This is the story of how fascination transmogrified into plans and then planes. This was an age of dreamers and schemers.

Main picture: Experimental air mail service between Cape Town and Durban

Port Elizabeth of Yore: Pearson Conservatory

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 8 March 2018 0 Comment

One of Port Elizabeth’s little-known gems is this feature in St George’s Park. Think of Kew Gardens Conservatory – but on a far smaller scale – and you will have an idea of what to expect from the Pearson Conservatory.

Main picture: Interior of the Pearson Conservatory

Rare Stromatolite and Symbiotic Metazoan along PE’s Littoral

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 3 March 2018 1 Comment

It would not be incorrect to state that as a youngster, exploring the foreshore of Schoenmakerskop, I treated the slimy green pools above the shoreline as little more than abominable, detestable and obnoxious. If they had miraculously disappeared before my next visit, I would have celebrated their demise.

Little did I comprehend the significance of these glutinous bright green preternatural pools. Somewhat implausibly, their appearance belies their significance. In part thanks to a documentary by the timeless David Attenborough, did I later learn about stromatolites, yet I made no connection between these sludgy pools and those cyanobacterial mounds that David, in his inimitable fashion, waded out at Hamelin Pool, Shark Bay, Australia, to view close-up.

Main picture: Stromatolites at Seaview, one of the sites where the new species of prawn like burrower was discovered

Collegiate School: Reminiscences of the First Pupils

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 3 March 2018 0 Comment

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

Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Birth of the Collegiate School

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 1 March 2018 0 Comment

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 19^th 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).

Inappropriate Renovations of Port Elizabeth’s Historical Buildings

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 23 February 2018 0 Comment

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

Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Early Architecture

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 22 February 2018 3 Comments

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

Schoenmakerskop: A Murder Most Heinous

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 24 January 2018 2 Comments

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

Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Baakens from Pristine Lagoon to Industrial Epicentre

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 18 January 2018 3 Comments

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]

The Opinion Pieces are an eclectic bunch on current affairs & history often with a human interest aspect. The Movie/DVDs reviews are mainly on documentaries with a smattering of movie reviews.

Category Archives: Port Elizabeth of Yore