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		Majestic Hotel Kalk Bay, Western Cape PARKER and FORSYTH: Architect 1916 AB REID and CO: Contractor 1916 William Hood (Billy) GRANT: Architect additions 1926 Ernest ROSE: Architect additions 1926 Bright FRASER: Architect renovations 1939 Michael Henry Reid MUNNIK: Architect 2007

Date: 1916 : 1926 : 1939: 2007 Client: ER Syfret (1916) Type: Hotel Status: Extant Street: 124 Main Rd   Click to view map Coordinates: 34°07'35.08" S 18°26'54.98" E Alt: 17m

The land was first granted to the Cape of Good Hope Fishing, Whaling and Sealing Company in 1818. The first hotel on the site was named Holloway's Hotel which operated since c. 1870. It was owned by Thomas Cutting who sold it to Johan Knipp in 1874. Knipp sold it to hotelier Daniel Cloete in 1876. In 1877 it was purchased by Anders Ohlsson who renamed it 'The Masonic' and transferred it to Ohlsson's Cape Breweries in 1889. The double-storey Masonic consisted of 8 bedrooms, a bar, billiard room, dining room, toilets and a kitchen. The Masonic was demolished c. 1913 and John PARKER designed a new single-storey hotel (now known as the Annex). It consisted of 7 bedrooms, one bathroom, a store, billiard room, saloon and a street-front public bar know as 'Die Klipkantientjie'. In 1916 PARKER was commissioned to design a new three-storey hotel, known as The Kalk Bay Hotel, renamed the Majestic Hotel on completion. The builders were AB Reid & Co. Further additions were made in 1923, 1926 and 1930. In 1926 WH GRANT designed a triple-storey extension to the south, including a new dining room, bar and cloakrooms. The 1926 extensions were built by F Bakker & Co. The architect Ernest ROSE designed new 'native quarters'. In c. 1928 the hotel was purchased by the Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company in order to serve as an extension of their Mount Nelson Hotel. In 1939, with the outbreak of WWII, they sold it to hotelier George Koenig and Son. Internal renovations were designed by architect Bright FRASER. At that stage the hotel had 61 rooms. It was sold to Afrox in 1972 and later became known as 'Mountain Heights' when it served as a home for physical and mentally challenged persons. The centre closed in 1994 when the ANC halted its funding. Compiled from The Kalk Bay Historical Association Bulletin 5 & 15, by Paul v d Merwe. (SAB Jul 1926:37) The hotel was turned into a luxury holiday apartments complex, the Majestic Village, in 2006. All truncated references not fully cited below are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon. References: Walker, Michael. 2015. Old hotels of Cape Town (1890-1911), The : A history long forgotten, seldom told. St James: Published Privately. pg 15 + ill