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Church Street 25 Tulbagh, Western Cape

Date: n.d. Type: Homestead Style: Cape Dutch Status: Extant Street: 25 Church Street

Like no.23, this house stands on the part of Jacob de Bruyn's land, acquired in 1796, which he sold to PF Theron in 1809. Theron in 1814 sold the portion of it that lay on the river side of the street to his son, Pieter, who built on it in the same year. It is an interesting house: the first in the street to be built on a rectangular, two-rooms-deep plan. But it is essentially different, being a 'condensed H', as occurs in the Stellenbosch district, its central third forming an unbroken voor- en agterkamer, without entrance passage, and on either side flanked by two rooms, one in front and one at the back. Also in Stellenbosch fashion, a passage was later taken off the left of the voorhuis, to conform with the entrance-passage style by then customary, and the now asymmetrical door balanced by one leading into the remaining part of the voorhuis. The façade woodwork was also changed: the casements to sashes, the end windows to French windows. Later still, the house was given an upper floor under low-pitched iron roof; this probably happened in 1895. The pointed gable, also a mid-century adaptation to then current fashions, was also removed. The ornamental plasterwork fielding on the facade, with its scalloped patterns, is attractive, as is the cast-iron, striped veranda, and there are two louvred french windows, with quoined openings. In view of these interesting features, it was decided not to restore the house to its original appearance. [Fransen Hans, 2004. A guide to the old buildings of the Cape. Johannesburg & Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers. p, 371-372.] 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.