Take a trip down memory lane

With September being Heritage Month, the Record asked the Roodepoort Museum for some information on the heritage of Roodepoort.

So, sit back, relax and enjoy this trip down Roodepoort’s memory lane with us.

This trip will consist of visits to some of the city’s most famous historical places of interest, including:

– The old gaol and warder’s house is situated in Seventh Avenue, Florida. It was built in the 19th century and is believed to be the only remaining government building in Roodepoort. The building currently houses the local offices of the Red Cross Society.

– Roodepoort Town School in Rex Street, which was built in 1913 and is the oldest remaining school building in Roodepoort.

– The old municipal offices and Roodepoort Town Hall, both situated in Berlandina Street, Roodepoort. The municipal offices were built in 1906 for the use of the Roodepoort-Maraisburg municipality and were used until 1936. Simon Bekker laid the cornerstone for the Roodepoort Town Hall in 1936 and the building was built by Bennet and Company at a cost of £30 875.

– The Old House in Delarey is a council-owned property on the corner of Boundary Road and Third Avenue. It dates back to the 20th century and is one of the few remaining examples of the early wood and iron structures.

– The Vlakfontein Monument was erected to commemorate the Jameson Raid of 1895/ 96, in which the Boer Commandos managed to prevent the Jameson’s invasion on 2 January 1896.

– The Discoverer’s Memorial Hospital in Clarendon Drive, Hamberg, first opened its doors in 1932. The hospital was named in remembrance of the discovery of the Main Reef’s gold-bearing rocks and the sinking of the first mines in the area.

– Kloofendal Nature Reserve is in Galena Avenue and was declared a protected wilderness area in 1972. In 2004 the city reintroduced small game such as mountain reed buck, small antelopes, duikers and dassies into the park. It is also home to the Confidence Reef Mine where Fred and Harry Struben first discovered gold in 1884.

– The Walter Sisulu Botanical Garden in Ruimsig is one of eight botanical gardens in South Africa. It covers almost 300 hectares of ground with both landscaped and natural veld areas. Witpoortjie Falls is situated in the middle of the gardens and has been a favourite picnic spot since the late 1800s.

No trip will be complete without visiting a cemetery to pay homage to our ancestors. Roodepoort has a few cemeteries with historical significance:

– The Weltevreden Family Cemetery is in Sterkbos Street, Roodepoort and has graves from as early as 1873. It represents the earliest known written record of Roodepoort’s history.

– Other cemeteries include the Juliwe (Horison), Florida, Hamburg and Maraisburg cemeteries.

And so we come to the end of our trip – hope you had an enjoyable time reminiscing about everything in our history that helped to shape our heritage.

Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at roodepoortrecord@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.

For free daily local news on the West Rand, also visit our sister newspaper websites Randfontein Herald, Krugersdorp News and Get It Joburg West Magazine

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