Port Elizabeth of Yore Archives - Page 71 of 72

Port Elizabeth of Yore: Victoria House

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 17 July 2016 2 Comments

By all accounts, his house is probably the oldest one in Port Elizabeth. As such I would have thought that it would have been declared a National Monument ages ago. On the contrary, nothing has been done. In fact, Victoria House has been in crisis for a number of years. Apparently it was in a reasonable state up until the late 1990s before being occupied by vagrants and prostitutes. In 2005 it was sealed up by the Health and Safety department. In recent years work has been carried out but local activists are concerned that many of the house’s important features have been lost.

How can such a valuable piece of Port Elizabeth’s heritage be allowed to be destroyed?

Main picture: Victoria House at Number 31 Constitution Hill

Port Elizabeth of Yore: Sand dunes, Inhabitants and Animals

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 13 July 2016 3 Comments

Imagine if I told you that 250 years ago a Swedish botanist by the name of Thunberg spotted a herd of 500 buffaloes in the area 20 minutes from the centre of Port Elizabeth called Kragga Kamma. First all the large animals were eliminated and then the smaller ones. Today all that remains is a recently opened small game park in the area. Apart from that, originally the area from Cape Recife to Humewood to Bushy Park was one giant field of sand dunes. Sadly this natural wonder has been replaced with Port Jackson Willows. What size was Port Elizabeth before the arrival of the Settlers?

Some of these developments were beneficial but others were disastrous. It depends upon one’s point of view. But such is the cost of progress.

Main picture: Hunting in Bushy Park

Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Horse Memorial

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 12 July 2016 0 Comment

For me the inscription on the granite statue, “The greatness of a nation consists not so much in the number of its people or in the extent of its territory as in the extent and justice of its compassion” is apt. That Port Elizabeth chose to honour our equestrian friends who were slaughtered during the Boer War epitomises that humanity.

Main picture: Horses being offloaded at the Port Elizabeth harbour during the Anglo Boer War using the sling-hoist method.

Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Road through Target Kloof and its Predecessors

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 11 July 2016 9 Comments

Due to the Baakens River Valley, Port Elizabeth is effectively cleaved into two. Instead of having to take a circuitous route around via South End or use a track from Gubb’s Location, during 1896 it was decided at a Town Council meeting that the Divisional Council’s proposed plan to build a road through Target Kloof from Port Elizabeth to Walmer be approved.

This blog covers the history of the various tracks and roads linking these two towns.

Main picture: The original proper road across the Baakens River was merely called New Road. Also note the footbridge on the left of the road. It was probably used by pedestrian traffic when the river was in spate and water flowed over the road. The hill in the background is where Wellington Park is situated today. Wellington Park is a small Municipal open space on the edge of the Baakens Valley at the corner of Main Road and 5th Avenue. It used to consist of two sports fields that were voluntarily maintained by the nearby Clarendon Primary School.

Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Parsonage House at No. 7 Castle Hill

By Dean McCleland in McClelands, Port Elizabeth of Yore 9 July 2016 8 Comments

This, the oldest unaltered house in Port Elizabeth, bears a specific significance in my life. The original owner of that house – the Reverend Francis McCleland – was my great-great-grandfather. In 1962 the house was declared a National Monument. In order to restore the parsonage house from a place of ill-repute back to its former glory, all members of the McCleland clan in Port Elizabeth were requested to contribute financially to this process.

This blog chronicles how this parsonage came to be erected in Port Elizabeth, its fall from grace, and then how it achieved its current status as a treasured museum

Main picture: This must be the earliest view of Number 7 Castle Hill – a lithograph by W.J. Huggins showing whaling in Algoa Bay in 1832. The recently completed house of Francis McCleland stands alone at the top of Castle Hill, midway between Fort Frederick and the memorial pyramid to Lady Donkin, after whom the town of Port Elizabeth was named

The Sea can be a Dangerous Place as I Learnt

By Dean McCleland in McClelands, Other Personal, Port Elizabeth of Yore 9 June 2016 4 Comments

Being brought up by the sea brought us boundless joy as children. From a very early age we all learned to swim proficiently. As my father was brought up at the coast, he took us to the beach every weekend irrespective of what the weather conditions were like. Due to our competence, we were left unsupervised and unattended on the beach from an early age. Instead of the current generation frequenting the malls, we led an active life.

Even as a competent swimmer I twice almost did not see another day. On both occasions it was a spring tide which was the cause of my near fatal mishaps. Perhaps familiarity breeds contempt as I did not treat the sea with the caution it deserves.

These are the chronicles of those events still seared in my memory.

Main picture: This is a view of the main sand dune at Maitlands River Mouth Continue reading

What happened to the Shark River in Port Elizabeth?

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 7 June 2016 0 Comment

Today the Shark River is a non-descript stream – more of a trickle really – that tinkles its way through Happy Valley. Being no more than 15kms in length with its source in the location marked Drinking Place on the maps, yet this self-same river was once the earliest water supply of Port Elizabeth. How was this miniscule river together with the Donkin Stream next to the Donkin Reserve capable of supplying the Town’s needs? Logically the water from the Baakens River should have been the preferred source being not only closer but more reliable with a perennial water flow. The other mystery to me is how this docile placid stream is able to increase by the extent that it does during flooding despite having such a minute catchment area.

Main picture: The Shark River on 1st September 1968 and recently. How could such a docile placid stream be transformed into such a violent raging torrent, sweeping all before it.

A Pictorial History of the Campanile in Port Elizabeth

By Dean McCleland in Historical, Port Elizabeth of Yore 31 May 2016 1 Comment

The Campanile was erected to commemorate the landing of the 1820 Settlers and is situated at the entrance to the railway station and docks in Strand Street, the spot where it is said the settlers landed in Port Elizabeth. The architects were Jones & McWilliams with construction starting in April 1921 and it was completed in October 1923.

A Sunday Drive to Schoenmakerskop in 1922

By Dean McCleland in McClelands, Port Elizabeth of Yore 26 May 2016 19 Comments

After losing all their possessions in a great flood of the Gamtoos River in 1906, my paternal grand- parents purchased 3 plots in an isolated hamlet called Schoenmakerskop during July 1918. On erf 17 – what was to become Number 32 Marine Drive – they constructed a wooden restaurant, which in its early years was called “The Hut”. With only a limestone and sand road from Walmer, their customers must have been paltry. Against the odds, luck was on their side. On Wednesday 6^th December 1922, Marine Drive was opened. It became a magnet for the rich and well-heeled in Port Elizabeth. Soon The Hut was overflowing with customers and the whole family was pressed into service catering for this demand.

This blog is a pictorial replication of that drive on Sunday 10^th December 1922 with contemporary photographs and drawings.

Main Picture: The start of the drive was at the Port Elizabeth Town Hall. One hundred and fifty model T Fords line up to make the journey around the Marine Drive. This is the actual photograph of the vehicles lining up.

The Three Eras of the Historic Port Elizabeth Harbour

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 17 May 2016 0 Comment

The harbour in Port Elizabeth has always been intimately connected with the City. When the 1820 Settlers arrived, they found wide expansive, almost virgin beaches devoid of human habitation except for the occasional Khoi San nomads. Fort Frederick had recently been constructed and some troops were manning it. Apart from that it was desolate and unoccupied.

Essentially the harbour’s history can be trifurcated as follows:

the North Jetty – 1837
the Charl Malan quay in 1933
The modern era

Main picture: An early view of the harbour from the Donkin

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.

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