Harmonie - Sunnyside - Pretoria

Johanna van Warmelo / Brandt’s family home 1895-c.1916

Original owner: Unknown

Status: Unknown

Harmonie was one of the small pre-suburban farms (plasies) that lay immediately north of old Pretoria, on the banks of the Apies River.

By the time the van Warmelo family moved there in 1895, it was already a spacious country estate with a large house, orchards, and gardens. It became famous during the Anglo-Boer War as the secret headquarters of the “Petticoat Commando” run by Johanna and her mother Maria.

The 1979 article from Restorica No. 6 gives us the clearest picture of how the surrounding area developed:

When Sunnyside was formally surveyed in 1887 by Johan Rissik, the planners deliberately aligned the new township with the old wagon road (Marestraat / Mears Street?) that ran from the south across Elandspoort farm. President Street (today Gerard Moerdijk Street) was laid out as the westernmost street of Sunnyside. The wooded, unsurveyed land between President Street and the Apies River was known locally as Lovers’ Walk. Harmonie estate itself bordered this western edge of Sunnyside, with access from both President Street and Joubert Street.²

"In daardie tyd (pre-2nd Boer War) het hy (Sir Johannes van Boeschoten) ook 'n gerieflike huis gehad tussen Rissikstraat en die destydse "Harmonie" van die Van Warmelo's, welke eiendom deur die Engelse beset is na die inname van Pretoria op 5 Junie 1900."³

• Johannes Gerard van Boeschoten (1862 - 1937) was mayor of Pretoria from 1902-1910.

Map showing Harmonie¹

Approximate location of Harmonie on Google Maps

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Sources

1. Van der Merwe, M.E. (2016) 'n Historiese perspektief oor die kontroversiele lewe van Johanna Brandt. (thesis)
2. Rex, H.M. (1979) "Mea Vota", Rissikstraat 62, Pretoria, 'n Sunnysidese Herehuis. Restorica, No 6.
3. (1969) Die Herkoms van die Name van die Strate in die Omgewing van die Pretoriase Onderwyskollege. Pretoriana, No 60.