Heimat – home of NWU Arts
Heimat is the first permanent structure and brick building to be built on the campus of the Potchefstroom University College (PUC). It was officially taken into use in 1927 as a residence for 50 students. It nowadays houses NWU Arts, the very important organisational...
NWU Main Building – the icon of Potch
The one building that is synonymous with Potchefstroom is the Main Building (E5) of the North-West University (NWU), Potchefstroom Campus. The distinct style of this building is one of its kind. No other university in South Africa can sport a building in similar...
Sarel Yssel – klein van statuur, groot van gees
Vir bykans ’n eeu was die historiese gewelhuis, net buite Potchefstroom op pad na Carletonville die tuiste van oom Sareltjie Yssel. Vandag het sy huis ’n nuwe baadjie. Dit is uitgeskud, opgetooi en nuut gemaak. In die tuin speel kleuters in ’n moderne speelgrond...
Goetz-Fleischack Museum – portraying the lifestyle of more than a century ago
The last house museum to open in Potchefstroom during the glorious days of heritage preservation in the 1970s and 1980s was the Goetz-Fleischack House. The town acquired three house museums, from 1977 to 1988. The first was the Totius House Museum (see link below)...
A heart for parentless children
The plight of parentless children in Potchefstroom was never more acute than after the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). When the Potchefstroom concentration camp officially closed on 6 February 1903 a large number of destitute orphans were left behind. My article on the...
Jurie Schoeman – larger than life
For the people of his generation, he was a larger than life character. He was known for his business acumen and outspokenness, but also as an unintentional instigator of the movement to preserve the heritage of Potchefstroom. He is Jurie Schoeman. During the 1970s the...
The Potchefstroom Library – more than a century of service to the community
In the Potchefstroom Herald of 13 June 2024 it was reported that Potchefstroom had been without a library for three weeks from 17 May to 7 June 2024. This happened after its computer system was shut down due to the fact that through an oversight the municipality did...
Theological School complex – heavy with history
Today this row of Edwardian buildings show their backyards to Molen Street and the grandeur of the combined facades of the four stately buildings are hidden from view. This is the Theological School complex standing on the eastern side of Molen Street between Esselen...
1932 Leeudoringstad explosion of 320 tons of dynamite
This story is not about Potchefstroom history, but it is worth telling. It is about one of the largest explosions that occurred in South Africa and it was on 17 July 1932 at Leeudoringstad. The tenuous connection with Potchefstroom is that a report on the conclusions...
Gunpowder magazine – small but strong
Nowadays it is a very humble building, standing in a place where it does not make any sense. Hundreds of travellers pass it every day where it stands next to the on-ramp to the N12 from Potchindustria, presumably not knowing what it is. This is the gunpowder magazine...