Emmarentia farmhouse (1887)
Another one of the major Johannesburg farms was Braamfontein, and the owner, Louw Geldenhuys, built a beautiful farmhouse for his wife, Emmarentia, in 1887. The farmhouse still stands in gracious style in the suburb of Emmarentia, and is cleverly and lovingly restored. It's an eclectic mix of Victorian fireplaces, wooden floors, almost five metre high ceilings, large interleading rooms, together with Art Deco finishes in the bathrooms. The pantry has been lovingly restored to its Boer farmhouse look of wooden cupboards with chicken wire doors, complete with candle-burn marks at the bottom of the cupboard doors.
In 1858 Gerrit Bezuidenhout was granted title of the farm Braamfontein, an area of 3 500 hectares. Braamfontein was a large farm, stretching from Victory Park around to Rosebank in the north, Killarney in the north-east down to Commissioner Street in the east, over to Mayfair and Coronationville in the south-west, and up to the base of the Northcliff ridge. The farm was sub-divided several times and the eastern part bought by Lourens Geldenhuys (Louw's father) for ÂŁ4 500 in 1886, the year the main gold reef was discovered in Johannesburg. He planted vegetable gardens down the valley, and in 1902 he provided landless Boers with work by getting them to construct Emmarentia Dam at the bottom of his property. He settled 100 of these men on smallholdings on his farm, on the present day Emmarentia, Linden and Greenside
The farmhouse sits proudly in the suburb, its whitewashed walls in pleasing contrast to its long red-polished stoep, and green iron roof, and glorious garden, in which Emmarentia planted five palm trees, which today stand proudly in front of the house, gently rustling in the breeze.
An oak was planted in front of the house, and the tree is now on the pavement, the road kinking around it slightly. When the suburb was laid out in 1937 the town planners wanted to cut it down, but Emmarentia put her foot down - the oak was going to stay.
Louw and Emmarentia are buried in the small graveyard in Hill Road, several blocks behind the house.
Barely a kilometre along the road in Marks Park is Louw's brother Frans' house, now the clubhouse of the Park, also in good condition. - Lucille Davie
Article and photograph/s courtesy of City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za).
For more information on historic Johannesburg, visit Discover Joburg.
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