RS Scott

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Full name: Robert Stuart Scott

Lifespan: Unknown

Occupation: Financier, cultural patron, publisher

Biography

Permanent Buildings (1896, Johannesburg) belonged partly to the pioneer, R. S. Scott, who, with Emanuel Mendelssohn, started a daily paper, the Diggers News (later the Standard and Diggers News) in 1887.

"Emmanuel Mendelssohn of Johannesburg in association with R.S. Scott of Queenstown published The Standard & Transvaal Mining Chronicle on Saturday 12 March 1887 as a four-page trifle produced by hand on a Columbian press under canvas. Scott's Standard and William Crosby's Diggers News merged in 1889 as the Standard & Diggers News supported by and sympathetic toward the Kruger administration. In the records of the N.P.U. for 1890 the publisher is given as W.S. Rodworp. The proprietors were Mendelssohn & Bruce."

Standard & Diggers News, Feb 1900.

Corporation Building (1899) aka Standard and Diggers Building in Rissik St, Johannesburg. (Old postcard published by Epstein & Co, Durban). The architects were Carter & McIntosh.

In the 1890s, Scott was one of the initiators and key backers of a major musical project in Johannesburg. He partnered with Emanuel Mendelssohn (a prominent local figure married to a soprano, Madame Mendelssohn) to establish and fund efforts that advanced the city's cultural scene.

Standard Theatre: Commissioned by Mendelssohn and Scott, the theatre was built to provide a more permanent structure than the earlier corrugated iron shacks like the Theatre Royal. The theatre was a hub for entertainment, including opera, and later introduced films in 1911 before being demolished in 1959.

Standard Theatre.

"As a boy I saw the old gentleman, white moustached and with wispy silver locks, going to the room on the top floor where he lived a lonely and - in view of his wealth - quite unnecessarily rigorous bachelor existence. By some old-time arrangement, he owned the northern half of the premises (Permanent Building) alone, sharing the staircase and the lift with a building society." (Rosenthal).

Sources
  • Shovel and Sieve. Rosenthal, E. c.1959. George Allen and Unwin: London.
  • Nicprint-50. 1969. Picton, L.J. (thesis)
  • Greetings from Johannesburg. Phelatelic Federation of South Africa.

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