Archistori

Full name: Christiaan Johannes Jacobus Joubert Lifespan: 1834 Swartberg, Beaufort, Cape Colony - 1911 Pretoria [77] Occupation: Politician, farmer Joubert was a prominent South African statesman and official in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR), widely recognized as one of the co-namers of the city of Johannesburg. Christiaan Joubert⁶ Timeline Short biography At the age of 3 (c.1837), his family trekked from the Cape Colony, seeking to distance themselves from British Rule. Joubert's father, Petrus Jacobus Joubert (bef. 1786 - 1843) established a missionary station at Zoar, and was one of the religious leaders at the Slag van Bloedrivier (Battle of Blood River). Christiaan married Johanna Magdalena Cornelia Vermaak (1836 Cape - 1908 Pretoria) in c.1855. They had nine children. He was only 31 years old (c.1865) when he was elected to the Volksraad as a member for Pretoria. As a member of important public commissions, he quickly drew attention and became a member of the Uitvo...

Aka: Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk (Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa) Built: 1946 Architect: Unidentified Location: Jacobs St, Cathcart North-west elevation¹ The building has been extended around the tower, and is currently used by a different denomination. Locality map Sources Van der Westhuizen, S.J. (1976) Queenstown . Die Hervormer, Nov 1976.  

Full name:  Ernst Karl Erich Mayer Lifespan:  1876 Germany - 1960 Pretoria [84] Occupation: Artist Primary Mediums: Watercolors, oil paintings, sketches, and woodcuts. Key Subjects: Highveld landscapes, rural farm life, Baobab trees (Kremetartbome), vernacular architecture. Erich Mayer² Timeline Early Life & Architectural Beginnings Ernst Karl Erich Mayer was born on April 19, 1876, in Karlsruhe, Germany. He was awarded a bursary to study architecture at Charlottenburg Technische Hochschule (Berlin) from 1894-1896. He had to end his studies in 1896 due to illness, Seeking a warmer, healthier climate to aid his recovery, Mayer immigrated to South Africa in 1898 and initially found work as an assistant land-surveyor in Vrede, Free State. Technische Universität Berlin . Image source: Industriekultur. Wartime Confinements and Exile When the Anglo-Boer War broke out in 1899, he actively joined a Boer commando unit. He spent his nights sketching the local farmers and landscap...

Established: 1929 Established by: Machteld Postmus Purpose: Elderly care, frail care Initial branches: Ons Tuis, Soutpansbergweg, Pretoria Machteld Postmushuis, Alexander Rd, Pretoria / Machteld Postmus-tehuis Ons Tuis, Observatory Rd, Johannesburg Machteld Postmus (AI enhanced portrait)¹ Timeline The Ons Tuis complex: Ons Tuis (Soutpansberg Road, Pretoria), Machteld Postmus House (Alexander Street, Pretoria), and Ons Tuis (Observatory Road, Johannesburg) were born in 1929 out of the initiative of Mrs Machteld Postmus, wife of a former Governor of the SA Reserve Bank. Dr Johannes Postmus (1877 Netherlands - 1947) was the second Governor of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) from 1932 until 1945. ² The beginning was small: a house in Schubart Street, Pretoria, with just two residents. On 1 April 1929, the first Ons Tuis was officially opened in Proes Street, Pretoria, with 14 elderly residents. In 1933, the home was relocated to the nurses' home of the old General Hospital in...

Built: c.1917 Architect: Unidentified Status: Demolished Address: 1003 Schoeman St, Pretoria. North (street) elevation (photo c.1967). This was the family home of Prof. Dr. J.H.J.A. Greyvenstein from 1917 to 1967.

Full name: Prof. Dr. Jan Hendrik Jacobus Antonie Greyvenstein aka Vader Greyvenstein / Ou Vadertjie Lifespan: 1878 Barkly East - 1967 [89] Occupation: Academic in Theology Prof. Greyvensteyn⁴ Timeline Prof. Greyvenstein was an academic who served as the very first church lecturer and theological professor for the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk at the Transvaal University College (which later became the University of Pretoria). He was the eldest son of Hendrik Greyvenstein (a sheep farmer) and Gertruida Smit. He interrupted his BA studies to fight as a Cape rebel for the Boer Republics in the Anglo-Boer War. He was captured in 1900 but completed his BA privately by 1902, and finished his local seminary training at the Victoria College (which later become the University of Stellenbosch) in 1905. He earned his doctorate from Utrecht University on 27 January 1911. Greyvenstein front centre (1917).⁵ He did a short stint as minister in the Dutch Reformed Church (NG Kerk) in Maitland and ...

Lifespan:  1838 England - 1908 Johannesburg [70] Occupation:  Bookbinder (England), waste paper dealer (England), adventurer, trader, prospector, politician. John Thorburn (seated).¹ Timeline Some dates are estimates. Early life John Thorburn was born into a family of bookbinders in Westminster, England. At the age of about 16, he traveled to Newfoundland before settling in the American South during the 1860s, where he worked as a planter and slave merchant prior to the Emancipation Proclamation. When the American Civil War broke out, he served as a soldier and apparently witnessed the historic naval battle between the world's first modern ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimac . Photo by A. Debenham (n.d.) The global rush for wealth eventually drew him to the Eastern Transvaal in c.1869, where he tried his luck at both the Wet and Dry Diamond Diggings. He made a small fortune on the Kimberley diamond diggings in the eighteen-seventies (by 1876 he was located there). Then in ...