Street names reflect history 8 – M & N
A dominee with strange advice on how to alleviate loneliness, a music professor who died after a car accident, a doctor who died of the Spanish Flu and another music teacher all lend their names to streets in this category. Maherry Street (South) J Maherry, an...
What happened in the Potchefstroom concentration camp
This week’s news reports about the current spike in the Covid pandemic echo down the ages to 120 years ago. Stories about the measles outbreak in the winter of 1901 in the Potchefstroom concentration camp sound eerily familiar with overcrowded hospitals, exhausted...
Remembering a genocide
The public holiday of 16 June is known as Youth Day, commemorating the death of 60 youths shot by police in 1976. But for the Afrikaners 16 June signifies the day the British forces started the genocide of the Boer nation. On 16 June 1900 Lord Robberts set the...
A fresh look at the historic mills of Potchefstroom
Almost all that is left of the thriving mill industry on the Bult during the latter part of the 19th century are mill streams, repurposed as storm water drainage and three street names, Molen Street, Meul Street and Hoffman Street. The first two are self-explanatory...
Street names reflect history 7 – K & L
The interesting people that walked the streets of Potchefstroom never cease to amaze me. The exasperated first teacher of Potchefstroom, another historian and a once fancy hotel all lent their names to street names starting with a “K and “L”. Kamp Street (Central) was...
Street names reflect history 6 – I & J
A father and son – both historians – a war hero, a cartographer and a long-standing dominee all lent their names to Potchefstroom street names starting with an “I” and a “J”. Iris Street (Grimbeekpark) Senex is of the opinion that Iris Street was named after one of...
As ’n biblioteek brand . . .
Die brand wat die biblioteek van die Universiteit van Kaapstad Sondag deels in puin gelê het, het boekliefhebbers én dié wat die geskiedenis van die Ferdinand Postma-biblioteek ken, laat sidder. In 1949 is die biblioteek van die destydse Potchefstroomse...
Street names reflect history 5 – G & H
Many colourful characters are remembered in streets named after them. Under the G’s and H’s are a stable boy, one of the first owners of a car – nicknamed “Knight of the Road” and Potchefstroom’s first tree hugger. “Knight of the road” Gaisford Street (Potchindustria)...
Street names reflect history 4 – D, E and F
An excessive smoker, the intriguing “Dicky birds” and a businessman supporting Potchefstroom’s most famous athlete all contributed their names to these street names. Not all street names are included, only those which have a direct link to the history of...
Old Grimbeekhuis – a gem in our midst
Set like a fine diamond in the setting of its verdant gardens, the Old Grimbeekhuis in Herman Street in Grimbeek Park, is a treasure in our midst. This is how it is described by a reviewer on social media. The Old Grimbeekhuis is very near to my heart. In the early...