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		House De Witt - Montana Vista Wynberg, Western Cape Anthony (Antonie) Mauritz DE WITT: Architect

Date: c1898 Type: Homestead Style: Eclecticism Status: Demolished 1970s Street: Aliwal Rd

... a riotous extravaganza ... In Swiss chalet manner, there was tier upon tier of balconies, some cast iron, some wood, scarcely two windows were alike, and atop all this a steep pitched roof was decorated with every possible device for diversion of the eye. ... the entrance through huge gates on a corner, ... the house with its grandiose front steps, ... one balcony was romantically hung with wistaria. In its old age a lovely garden, but in its prime it could have done little to lessen the hideousness of the house. (Picton-Seymour, 1977:115) When EA COOKE retired in 1936 he was recorded as living at Montana Vista. Demolished in the 1970s. Picton-Seymour in 1977 refers to it as "recently demolished". References: Picton-Seymour, Désirée. 1977. Victorian Buildings in South Africa. Cape Town: AA Balkema. pg 115 Radford, D. 1979. The architecture of the Western Cape, 1838-1901. A study of the impact of Victorian aesthetics and technology on South African architecture. Johannesburg: Unpublished Ph.D thesis. Dept of Arch. University of the Witwatersrand. pg 315 Transvaal Publishing Co. 1906. Men of the Times : Old Colonists of the Cape Colony and Orange River Colony. Johannesburg, Cape Town and London: The Transvaal Publishing Co. pg 434