I was very surprised to see this photo which brought back old memories for me. It is of The Towers where we spent several weeks after emigrating to SA in the 1974. Thought you might like to see it and read about it! The Towers Muizenberg 1987. This extract from the Muizenberg News January 1987 (supplied by Dave and Cynthia Privett). Author unknown. The Towers one of the remarkable of the older buildings in Muizenberg , was sold in November 1986 to Mr Dimitri Livanos of Mescalero Pty Ltd for R105 000. Natalia Chedburn and John Hutton of False Bay real Estates handled the sale of this property. Its story is fascinating. Back in 1887, on 23 July, Professor James Gill, a well known educationist entered into a deed of agreement with the Government of Cape which eventually gave him transfer on 28 January 1889 of 8 morgen of land on the mountain slopes west of the Main Road running through Muizenberg. The purchase price for the whole property was 65 pounds. Professor Gill was a well known personality of the Cape. Born in Cornwall, England in 1831, he had a distinguished scholastic record at Cambridge, becoming a teacher at Christs Hospital and then, in 1860 immigrating to Graaf-Reinet in the Cape where he became Professor of Classics at the newly formed college there. In 1871 he moved to Cape Town as Classics Professor at the Diocesan College (now the University of Cape Town). He was a powerful, opininated man who did many good things throughout his career and was involved in many controversies. He was eventually dismissed from the College in 1882, opened a private school in Muizenberg and became the editor of the Cape Illustrated Magazine. he was a renowned public speaker and concerned with many societies, studies, and in Muizenberg with the affairs of the local municipality. Gill died in Muizenberg on 1 February 1904. Professor Gill had subdivided his Muizenberg property . The division on which The Towers stands is Erf 86452. It was sold for 157 pounds on 24 January 1898 to a well to do merchant, John Henry Wood. There was an interesting condition to the sale. No liquor was to be sold from the property unless from a first class hotel which cost at least 3100 pounds to build. Wood in fact built a sumptuous home on the site and lived there in considerable style until he ran into financial difficulties. On 1 august 1909 his assigned estate was sold for 1682 pounds to the Orphan Chamber. On 1 December 1916 the Orphan Chamber sold the property to the YWCA for 2500 pounds. For fifty years the YWCA remained in The Towers, building a second floor containing a row of single bedrooms. The building then was at its peak. there were 28 bedrooms on the first floor there was a dinning room, kitchen, pantry, office and a huge community room. There were commodious cellars at the bottom of the building, servants quarters and a fine garden. an imposing staircase provided access to the top two floors, the flooring was of jarrah , there was marble, stained glass windows, and a private water supply from a running mountain stream and a constant coming and going of people with well known wardens such as Miss Welsh and Miss Garland running the place for the YWCA. In 1967 the grand old building was sold to Conrad Lohr who intended to run it as a Christian Guest House. In 1972 he sold it to the Hurter Heslinger Organisation who planned to convert it into a home for indigent actors. In 1978 they sold it to Mark Hardwicke who in 1982 sold it to Wilhelm Kurt Reinholz. The Towers by then was dreadfully dilapidated. It had become a variety of community pad with some very queer people finding shelter in its rooms. A magazine, Odyssey was produced there and two of the strangest characters in Cape Town – The Sack People made home there. The Sack People were brother and sister, Giesbert and Dagmar Westphal who reputedly received a monthly remittance of R400 from there father so long as they remained out of Germany. They dressed in sacks, held strange views that the houses must breathe, knocked holes through the walls, removed plaster from the walls so that the walls could breathe. You could look through an entire floor of rooms where the internal walls once were. They had long spells when they did not wash and shorter spells when they did. They kept a dog named Thor nicknamed the Hairless One because they shaved off all its fur so that it could breathe. All of these inhabitants of The Towers were eventually moved out but the flooring was largely also removed by persons trying to find treasure. The atmosphere of the noble old house however remained and now the new owner who has taken over from Mr Reinholz has plans for a total restoration of the Towers to its former handsome style.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 09:40:27 +0000