Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.	Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon		Albany Museum - First Makhanda (Grahamstown), Eastern Cape Johannes Egbertus VIXSEBOXSE: Architect

Date: 1897 Type: Museum Status: Razed by fire 1941

It is not known how Vixseboxse procured this commission but it must relate to his winning that for the Natural History Museum in Cape Town earlier in the 1890s. In contrast to the Free Renaissance style of that, this is distinctly Netherlandish, similar to many of its contemporaries in the then Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek [ZAR] [See For instance Netherlands Bank - Second, or the railway stations at Heidelberg (Gauteng) and Middelburg, for example] all of the so-called 'Speklaag' or 'Streaky bacon' style, the Dutch equivalent of the Queen Anne Style in England. From the photographs it can be seen that the Dutch 'spout' gables did not last, either through damage or changing fashion, and were substituted with small pedimented cappings. Eventually the building was painted over an even white. The Museum building burnt down in September 1941. It was replaced by the new building opened by the Mayor of Grahamstown in 1945 designed by FARROW & STOCKS. On inspection there seems to be much of the original in the rebuild. Transcription of Foundation Stone, which was retained in the plinth of the new building, constructed after the fire. FOUNDATION-STONE LAID BY H.E. SIR ALFRED MILNER, G.C.M.G, K.C.E. GOVERNOR OF CAPE COLONY, AND HIGH COMMISSIONER, SEP. 8. 1897. Books that reference Albany Museum - First Bakker, Karel A, Clarke, Nicholas J & Fisher, Roger C. 2014. Eclectic ZA Wilhelmiens : A shared Dutch built heritage in South Africa. Pretoria: Visual Books. pg 195-196, 203 Gore, James (Compiler). 2005. Albany Museum : celebrating 150 years of heritage. Grahamstown: Trustees of the Albany Museum. pg All