7 Castle Hill, Central

Page Creator: Straton Electrical

7 Castle Hill is to be found in Gqeberha's historic Central suburb.

No 7 Castle Hill was completed in 1825 and is one of the oldest surviving Settler cottages in Port Elizabeth. Declared a National Monument in 1962 and following renovations, No. 7 Castle Hill, was opened as a Museum in 1965.

The house has been decorated and furnished to present a picture of nineteenth century domestic life in Port Elizabeth. The collection of furniture and domestic objects that have been donated for display in Number 7 reflects a thriving mid-Victorian community, whose members had progressed well beyond their settler beginnings and who had put down roots, surrounded themselves with possessions, and acquired a style of permanence.

The interior presents a picture of domestic life as enjoyed by an English middle class family in mid-19th Century Port Elizabeth. This picturesque family dwelling located in Castle Hill Road, Central has Yellowwood floors and beams, and a restored slate roof. The doll's house, lace displays and kitchen is particularly impressive.

No 7 Castle Hill transports children back in time, where their imagination can run wild as they explore the old furniture, kitchen equipment, collect water from the well, old toys and dolls, the fairy garden and complete a treasure hunt and make friends with the No 7 family in the display room!

Opening times are Monday to Thursday 10am to 4.30pm . Friday 10am to 4pm. Closed from 1pm to 2pm.

History

At the foot of Castle Hill on Market Square there was a well for fresh water - one of four in the immediate area:

• Halfway up Donkin Street
• Jetty Street
• Bank of Baakens River and
• Market Square

Castle Hill and Military Road were both constructed in the very early days, by the garrison troops stationed at Fort Frederick prior to the arrival of the settlers.

The first three streets constructed in the then Port Elizabeth were Castle Hill, Military Road and Main Street (renamed to Govan Mbeki Avenue).

The The original owner of 7 Castle Hill was the Reverend Francis McCleland.

No. 7 Castle Hill has a three-fold claim to be preserved for posterity. The house is, as far as can be ascertained, the oldest dwelling still standing in the city. Francis Evatt’s house at Chelsea can claim to be older but as it is not strictly located in the city and as extensions and refurbishments have destroyed the original house, it can no longer vie for the title of the oldest house. No. 7 is also a fine example of the type of town house built in the Eastern Cape during the first part of the nineteenth century by colonist of British stock. In addition, it was erected as the home of one of the original settlers of 1820, the first Rector of St. Mary’s Church, and one of Port Elizabeth’s most influential early residents.

In former days, the property extended to the site of the original Collegiate Girls School and Annerley Terrace forming the well-known “Parson’s Garden”.

In an article entitled Port Elizabeth’s Oldest House in Looking Back Volume 1, Number 4, December 1961, Margaret Rainier provides the best description of the house as follows:

The house, which is built of stone and rubble, plastered and white-washed, overlooks the bay from its steep hillside site, reflecting in its symmetrical design the manners of a bygone, formal age. Only one important feature of the house has been altered, the original slate roof being replaced with asbestos, the characteristic gable ends disappearing in the operation.

The house remained in the possession of the four McCleland daughters until it was sold to Mr James Daly in 1904.

Post McCleland Ownership

As one of a number of lodging houses that Daly owned in the neighbourhood, it fell into disrepair and disrepute and was eventually condemned by the municipal authorities. Then in 1938, Mr HB Smith, the Government Land Surveyor, bought it from Daly’s estate and saved it by renovating it as a comfortable home for himself. It was a great source of pride to him and he welcomed its proclamation as a National Monument shortly before his death in 1962. He had hoped that it might eventually be turned into a museum and with this intention, the house was purchased jointly with the City Council and the Provincial Administration in 1963 and some basic repairs were carried out. On his death, the house was purchased by the then City Council for the princely sum of R6,890.00 – according to the First and Final Liquidation and Distribution account.

Architecture

Based upon an article by Edit Neethling who in 1973, was the historian at the Port Elizabeth Museum.

Floorplan: The Cape Dutch U plan.is followed, the frontage being the main part of the house with two wings added. The first addition to the original front elevation was apparently the left-hand single-storeyed wing containing the servants’ room and the room now furnished as a study. The second addition was the double-storeyed wing consisting of an upstairs fourth bedroom and an extra room on the ground floor.

Exterior: The simple character of the house resembles the rural cottages of the British Isles, dating from the pre-Regency period, the proportions and spacing of the doors and windows, in particular, being characteristic. The present stoep with its solid wall is Cape Dutch inspired. It is, therefore, debatable if a wrought iron rail was originally there, although this could well be the case, as iron rails were extensively’ used in British Regency homes for balconies and bay-windows.

Interior: The general style is in the British tradition; the ceiling beams with white-washed planks between being typical. Local material was used for these beams, namely yellowwood. The slightly arched sashed windows are in the British Neo-Classical style. The interior shutters were added later for security reasons.

Although the house is of the late Georgian-cum-Regency architecture, it does not have the characteristic dado of the period’ in the parlour and dining room. I The wall cupboards show the Cape Dutch influence, a style with which the Rev. McCleland may have become familiar with during his five years as minister at Clanwilliam before his appointment to Port Elizabeth. The entrance hall has the proportions of an English town-house, with no indication of a screen of the Cape Dutch kind.

The very steep staircase has a beautiful well-proportioned handrail of straight lines in the Regency style, which blends well with the staircase itself. The yellowwood mantlepiece in the sitting room is of the Neo-Classical fluted style. The wrought-iron grate is a later Victorian addition. The fireplace in the dining-room has been entirely removed. The _basement kitchen originally featured an open-hearth fireplace as can be seen by the still-existing arch. The interior “bakoond” (baking oven) is Cape Dutch, such as can be seen in town houses of the period. This oven was built right into the rock of the hillside as was the pantry, to ensure coolness in the summer. The original floor of the kitchen was probably a mixture of mud and dung. The brick floor is a later addition. The yellowwood lintels above the windows and door of the kitchen are in the British and Continental tradition. Here again local material was used.

The walls of the basement and first floor are very thick as they have to support the weight of the upper floor. The first-floor walls of the outside are of the same thickness as those downstairs, but the interior dividing walls are less heavy, extensive use having been made of wattle and mud instead of the solid stones of the exterior walls. The two front bedrooms both had fireplaces: but only one is still in existence. This features the same well-proportioned fluted mantelpiece noted in the sitting room, but has been painted white. The room now furnished as a nursery must originally have been a linen-room, as the existing closet indicates.

The fourth bedroom (the office of the Historical Society until recently) also had a fireplace. This room originally had an outside staircase leading to the courtyard. On the ground floor, the present office of the curator was an extra dining room. The fireplace is still in existence. The present upstairs tea-kitchen and the downstairs cloakroom were later divisions of the original rooms and served as bathrooms.

The present dining-room I envisage as the minister’s study, because of its easy access from the entrance hall and its privacy from the rest of the house. Usually in parsonages, the study led off from the entrance hall on the left-hand side. An example of this can be seen in the Heritage Museum in Adelaide, which was ‘the parsonage of Ds. Stegman. The dividing wall between the hall and the present dining room was removed at some stage and moved towards the hall, thus enlarging the dining room. On the ceiling of the dining room one can still detect indications of a fireplace which must have been situated in the entrance hall.

The room off the dining room which is now fitted out as a study was probably a storeroom as there is no window and the door leads directly from the courtyard. The inside doors of the house are of the Regency style with six panels.

The servants’ room in the courtyard also has a fireplace but without any decoration. The two small windows and the door have yellowwood lintels. The servants’ toilet must have been the original lavatory of the house. The “well” in the courtyard is just a tank for storing the rainwater from the roof, the only means qf water-supply for this dwelling. The stand for the pump and the mouth of the well must have been made of wood instead of cement as at present.

A small proportion of the original cobblestones has survived but the rest has been restored in keeping with the original. The stone benches in the courtyard are made from stone steps taken from the old North End Gaol when it was demolished. Benches of this kind were common in Cape Dutch homes and these blend well with the character of the house. The slate roof is not the original one but a restoration made from the same kind of slate.

The garden features a grapevine and a fig tree. The closed arch of stonework originally led to the adjoining coach house and stable.

The main structure is parallel with the street, with a short wing, alike double-storeyed, projecting to the rear. Where the ground falls abruptly away at the side there are basement storerooms, originally (and evidently inconveniently) the kitchen quarters. In front of the house is a narrow-flagged veranda. The door is centrally placed, flanked by sash windows on either side. Above small but corresponding windows light the first-floor rooms.

The front door opens into a hall leading across the width of the house to a small vine-shaded courtyard. This is enclosed upon one side by the kitchen, and on the others by servants quarters and outhouses. Here rainwater from the roofs used to be collected for domestic use, stored in an underground tank of brick and plaster, with a neatly corbelled top.

To the right of the entrance is the staircase, ascending in one straight flight, and with a simple wooden balustrade. It is almost identical in design with the staircase at the farm Chelsea, which was granted in 1814 to Captain Evatt, commanding the garrison at Algoa Bay.

Every room, of course, has features of interest and charm. For example, most of the floors are of the typical broad yellowwood planking; but in the principal living room the boards are only about three inches wide, having been cut, apparently, to a special specification to reduce their tendency to warp.

In the same room the fireplace has a Victorian iron grate, fitted perhaps after the middle of the nineteenth century. In a room upstairs however, there is still a little open fireplace, ornamented with a simple reeded wooden beading; and this again has a companion piece at Chelsea.

Everywhere, space which. might have been· wasted; has been utilised for storage. Besides glass-fronted shelves downstairs, of the Cape “muurkas” type, there are closets upstairs large enough to walk into, and part of the wooden partition under the stairs opens to reveal a neat tool rack. The old house is notable for its personal associations as well as for its architectural features, and it has changed hands only twice – when the McCleland family sold it in 1904 to a Mr. Daly, and again when he sold it in 1939 to Mr. HB Smith. Mr. Smith, before retiring, practiced in Port Elizabeth as a Land Surveyor, following the tradition established by his father G. W. Smith who was responsible for so much of the lay-out of the expanding city.

References

1. Port Elizabeth in Bygone Days - JJ Redgrave pages 33 AND 123
2. Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism
3. The Casual Observer - Dean McCleland