Contact Artefacts
please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.

List of Projects

PFEIL, Frederick Molesworth

Born: 1835
Died: 1873 10 23

Engineer


Year registered: 1872

He began his professional life at an early age, serving a regular pupilage from 1849 to 1852 under a certain Mr W Colman, after which he was engaged for six years in various departments of engineering, amongst others, in the offices of Messrs Porks and Co, mechanical engineers and in the office of the Director of the Admiralty.

Thereupon he proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope in the year 1858 where he was employed for nearly two years in the Cape Colonial Engineer’s Department and afterwards for the same period as Engineer to the Mossel Bay Harbour Board.

When, in 1861 Pfeil went to Mossel Bay to superintend the harbour works there, he saw these through to their completion. He recommended that a lighthouse be built on Cape Blaize. While living in Mossel Bay he submitted designs in a competition for a new Anglican Church on the Hill (Holy Trinity Church) and also for the first Presbyterian Church. Both designs were accepted and at the end of March 1863 Pfeil came to Port Elizabeth to superintend the building of the two churches. Holy Trinity Church was later destroyed by fire and rebuilt. In 1864 Pfeil was 'engaged to draw out sections and plans' of a bridge to cross the Van Stadens River on the new road and he was Inspecting Engineer on these road works until the end of 1865. In 1866 he succeeded AG Warren as Harbour Engineer, Port Elizabeth and he designed the Strand Street Mosque, Port Elizabeth, which has subsequently been dismantled, and the private home Dunlop House for RD Buchanan, which today is part of the Grand Hotel, Port Elizabeth.

On the occurrence of the commercial collapse at the Cape in 1869, Pfeil returned to England for a short time. Thereafter he accepted the position of Divisional Resident Engineer on the Madras railway, which he held for little more than three years until his premature death. He joined the Institution of Civil Engineers as an Associate on the 6th of February, 1872.

(Harradine 1984; Langham-Carter, MS UCT; Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Volume 38 Issue 1874, 1874, pp. 320-321 PART 2 - See icevirtuallibrary).

All truncated references not fully cited in 'References' are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon.

List of projects

With photographs
With notes

Hill Presbyterian Church: 1863. Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), Eastern Cape - Architect
Holy Trinity Anglican Church: 1862-1866 : 1872-1873 : 1897-1898. Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), Eastern Cape - Architect
House RD Buchanan - Dunlop House - Grand Hotel: 1867 : 1885. Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), Eastern Cape - Architect
Mosque: 1866. Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), Eastern Cape - Architect
Trinity Church - Holy Trinity: 1866 : 1873 : 1883 : 1897. Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), Eastern Cape - Architect 1866

Books citing PFEIL

Herholdt, AD. 1994. Eight beautiful Gothic revival churches of Port Elizabeth. Port Elizabeth: Ad Hoc Publishers. pp 87, 109