The Oldest House in Johannesburg
A few weeks ago I visited the oldest existing house in Johannesburg.
I’m a little confused as to exactly how old the house is. The house standing beside the oldest house was built in 1852. At least that’s what the historical plaque on the house says; this article by the City of Joburg says it was built in 1863.
This second house (not the oldest one, but the one standing beside it) is referred to as the Bezuidenhout Farmhouse. It was built by the Viljoen family and later taken over by the Bezuidenhout family when a Viljoen married a Bezuidenhout.
But the actual oldest house, which the Viljoens presumably lived in before building the larger house next door, doesn’t have a plaque. Isabella Pingle, the heritage activist who showed the houses to my friend Marie-Lais and me, says it was built around 1850 – more than 35 years before Johannesburg itself became a city.
The most interesting thing about this house, to me at least, is that there are a bunch of regular people living there. The house is obviously a significant historical site, but no one really knows or cares about that. For the people who stay there, this is just the house where they live.
The two houses are inside Bezuidenhout Park, a Joburg City park, and I got the impression that at least some of the the people living here are staff of the parks department.
When I visited the house, there were a bunch of kids outside playing with a shopping cart. I asked them if I could go in. I met a beautiful woman named Thandi, wearing a beautiful red coat, and she showed me her room.
After checking out the houses, Marie-Lais, Isabella and I walked over to the old cemetery a few hundred yards away. It was the Bezuidenhout family cemetery for several generations.
There is a lot more to be said here – about the city’s oldest house, when and why it was built, what has happened to it over the past 160-something years, and the people who live there now.
But like lots of stories in Joburg, most of this story is still a mystery to me. I hope you enjoyed this small piece of it.
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This was our playground as kids. There was a tearoom,pool and a miniature train in the park which were huge attractions over weekends. The cemetery had a fence around it with a gate at the stone arch, we often sat on the graves and shared ghost stories. When we got a lot older we would come to the park at night and have parties at the fire pit which was quiet close to the pool. Oh so many memories.
Those sound like nice memories. Do you remember what the houses looked like then?
Unfortunately not, wish I could. There were no fences around the park in those days so we would access it closest to where we stayed. I don’t think we ever used the main entrance. As kids it was over the stream on the east side and then when we were older and not living close by it was through the caravan park. Incidentally the caravan park is still there with people living there.
Hi Heather, I am so excited to tell you that, due to your example of adventurous exploring, I too, visited Bezuidenhout Park, a month ago. I have similar photos of the cemetery angel. Did you know that the wide open space behind the house used to be a very beautiful caravan park? I hope you got to see the veggie garden below the cemetery?
Hi Lesley, oh I’m so excited to hear that! I didn’t know about the caravan park. And no, I didn’t make it to the garden that day but it’s been on my list for AGES.
Hi Lesley, the caravan park is still there and occupied by more permanent residents as opposed to holiday makers. It is up towards the West side of the park with it’s own entrance from 3rd Avenue, Bez Valley.
We stayed at the caravan park in the ’80s when our girl were still in primary school, enjoyed the variety offered by the park (included a small train running along a railway) and have fond memories of the place as we lived in JHB and didn’t have a clue what a gem we had in our own suburbs.
That’s so interesting! Thanks for sharing Paul.
Nice! I hope to visit it.
I’m continuously amazed by how much people around the world are the same. In Thandi’s room for instance, I can see the tubs or buckets, the thick blankets in their plastic bags - and the nice things like the jackets and purse. She could be in Asia.
I felt this way when I was in Ecuador. I could see the parallels or similarities in the outdoor markets and even the people’s faces.
Yes, we’re all just people, after all. Living inside a John Lennon song :)
:D Ha! So poetic.
I am a 3rd generstion descendant by presumably Bezuidenhout brothers adoption to this famous Johannesburg Pioneer family.Some of those graves are my ancestry in Rhodes Park. My Paternal Grandfather Jacobus Louis Bezuidenhout born 1907 in Fordsburg grew up in that farmhouse.as a Bezuidenhout but fell out with his adopted family as a young man and married an English woman and changed his surname to Barry-Taylor. The farm has a lot of historical usage during the Boer War those caravan park buildings once housed the Indian Remount Camp (horses) of the Scottish regiment.It also has a monumental plaque on the side of Mary Mount Maternity Home gardens along Miriam Makeba Avenue formely Bezuidenhout Avenue commerating one of the first Jewish places for worship during the booming gold discovery mid 19th to early 20th century. I am looking to get in contact with any Bezuidenhout descendants: My email is [email protected]
Hi Roy, thank you so much for that interesting history. I hope you find your relatives!
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