Heritage
Heritage
Celebrating Wits’ Architectural Heritage
Photographs: Peter Maher
Where cows once grazed and horses were groomed, graduate students now engage in debate about the 21st century economy. Where carriages once rambled along, cars now whiz by; where governesses once tutored, lecturers now teach, and where children once played, students now live.
By Prof. Katherine Munro
V
North Lodge, although substantially altered over time, is more than a hundred years old” 42 WITSReview
isitors to the Wits Parktown Campus are often taken aback by the beautiful surroundings in which they find themselves. More than that, it is the story behind each building that seeps through, inviting guests to take a nostalgic walk through history. The Campus forms part of Parktown (originally Park Town, named after Park Station) an old residential part of Johannesburg dating back to the end of the 19th Century. Park Town became a desirable new suburb from 1892 to 1910, housing the elite residents of Johannesburg. Bordered by St David’s Place, Victoria Avenue, Blackwood Road, Oxford Road and St Andrew’s Road, the Parktown Campus is now an academic and residential hub, extending over seven hectares. It is home to the Wits Business School and the School of Public and Development Management but it September 2007
also serves as a residential hub, housing the 22 double-storey cluster units of Parktown Village 1 for postgraduate students and the older, substantial sturdy blocks of the Ernest Oppenheimer Hall dating back to the 1960s, affectionately called EOH by generations of undergraduates. Wits University invested in properties in Parktown from the early 1960s and remains a major landowner with an interest in maintaining its educational presence. Sadly, even in recent decades, much of the past vanished as new buildings were erected. Today there is a far greater consciousness of the need to preserve our architectural heritage than there was even 20 years ago. A powerful legislative framework ensures that older buildings cannot be demolished or even altered without permission and consultation. In terms of the National Heritage Resources Act of 1999, permits are needed to demolish or redevelop any structure older than 60 years. Wits faces the challenge of conserving and celebrating the past while at the same time adapting old buildings to suit modern educational purposes. We would like to further develop the Parktown Campus as a premier South African management education campus to shape global leaders in Africa in the 21st Century.We are actively seeking support to build a conference centre, to enhance accommodation for students and delegates and to upgrade teaching and library facilities. Drawing on Australia’s Burra Charter of 1999 (The ICOMOS Charter for the Conservation of Places of Cultural significance) Wits is committed to understanding the cultural significance of its buildings through documenting the fabric of the buildings and researching the history of all its properties. To this end, the Faculty of Commerce, Law September 2007
and Management commissioned architects Henry Paine and Johann Bruwer to present a Heritage Status Report to assist Wits in preserving and developing the Parktown Campus and to ensure that it meets all legislative requirements. Wits believes that old houses, outbuildings, servants’ quarters, coach houses, a block of flats, and even boundary walls, trees and gateposts can be saved and imaginatively included in plans for new activities. Wits seeks to work with the Parktown Heritage Association to ensure that the richly layered history of this portion of Johannesburg is preserved, protected and appreciated. Paine and Bruwer have researched the history and buildings of seven of the original Parktown Campus stands. The core of the Wits Parktown Campus is the historic piece of land once known as The Oval. The 1896 Plan of Johannesburg drawn by AE Kaplan, shows the Parktown Oval positioned at the centre of the original eight stands. In 1939, the Oval was renamed by the City of Johannesburg to the John Forrest Oval which later became an additional playing field for the Park Town Preparatory School (PTPS). In 1970 the City Council donated the Oval and the Oval Road to the University. Regrettably, much of the land was used for the residential Parktown Village cluster in the 1980s. Today, it is only a slight bend in the road behind EOH that picks up the outline of the original oval space. The name The Oval was also given to the double-storey, symmetrical small block of flats facing St Andrew’s Road built in 1926 in Early Modernist style. Minimal alterations have been made to the four original apartments and the original design is still visible. Wits acquired the property in 1963 and is WITSReview 43
