The Collegiate Church & Parish of St Mary’s Preface iii
The Collegiate Church & Parish of St Mary-Scanned Version
Tag Archives: Port Elizabeth
Port Elizabeth of Yore: Victoria House
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
Continue readingPort Elizabeth of Yore: Sand dunes, Inhabitants and Animals
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 Parsonage House at No. 7 Castle Hill
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
Continue readingWhat happened to the Shark River in Port Elizabeth?
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.
Continue readingCould South Africa learn from Road Running?
Today’s race at the National Botanical Gardens in Pretoria was no exception. Again I was surprised by what I learned except that it was not from a South African but a foreigner who has been in South Africa for only nine months. One is not accorded a special status in road running. All runners are equal. Unlike the public discourse which is characterised by divisive racism, violent political rhetoric and the politics of rage especially by the EFF, road running does not suffer from these travails.
Main picture: The entrance to the Willows resort in Port Elizabeth. Instead of inserting some arbitrary pictures onto this blog, I have included photographs of Willows Resort near Port Elizabeth because as youngsters we spent many an Easter Holiday there.
Continue readingA Sunday Drive to Schoenmakerskop in 1922
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 6th 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 10th 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.
Continue readingUnrest in Port Elizabeth
Port Elizabeth is still close to my heart as I was raised there. I only relocated to Joburg after completing my articles as there were no work opportunities there. Due to the numerous protest actions nationally mainly as a result of service delivery – poor, non-existent or shoddy – it is a daily occurrence throughout South Africa. Due to the number of these riots, they receive little publicity. For me this one did. My paternal grandmother Daisy Elizabeth McCleland, the family matriarch, lived at 99 Albert Street which judging by the photographs is slightly off the epicentre of some of these riots.
Continue reading
Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Great Flood of 1st September 1968
Unlike adults, at the age of 15, one is never affected by the weather. Even if it was raining, we would go swimming in the sea. Whether it was night or a howling gale force wind was blowing, we would be swimming. No matter how atrocious the weather conditions were or what the time of day was, it was time to swim.
There was only one exception to this rule: the water temperature. If the sea water was freezing cold, we would not swim but that would not prevent us from wading in the water and even “catching” a few waves. Nothing seemed to deter us or maybe we just never noticed what the weather was like.
Main picture: This “river” which runs through Happy Valley is normally no more than a trickle and would normally be classified as a placid stream.
Continue readingThe Friendly City – Port Elizabeth – My Home Town
For me Port Elizabeth represents my roots, physically and emotionally. It was only the lack of work opportunities after I had completed my Articles of Clerkship, that I was forced to relocate to Joburg in 1980. Emotionally it is more that the place where I grew up, went to school and university. My roots go much deeper than that. One of the first citizens of Port Elizabeth was my great great great grandfather. With his house at Number 7 Castle Hill being a National Monument, I can truly feel a part of Port Elizabeth’s illustrious history.
Main picture: The central suburb of Port Elizabeth.