The absolute last Doornfontein post…

At the corner of Pietersen and Nugget Street stood Warrington Hall which was designed by William Leck in 1896. The house was also known as Hildasheim and this name appears to predate the name Warrington Hall. It was across the road from Reunerts Windybrow, also by William Leck in 1896, which still stands today.

I’ve attached a google earth shot of the area showing the positions where the  photos were taken from and indicated Warrington Hall’s position. One of the buildings in the block is called Warrington Hall at 157 Nugget Street.

Sir Friedrich Eckstein was a German born on 9th April 1857 in Birkach near Stuttgart. He pioneered the development of South African gold mines together with his brother, Hermann Eckstein, founder of the famous Witwatersrand mining house of H Eckstein & Co. (Corner House) in 1887. Later he was a partner in the Werner Beit Co. of London. He succeeded Sir Julius Weinher as Chairman of the Central Mining & Investment Corporation, but was finally forced out of office by anti-German hysteria that broke out at the beginning of the First World War. From 1888 Eckstein lived in Johannesburg where he at one time owned a grand house called Warrington Hall in the suburb of Doornfontein. It may have been called Hildasheim initially and changed around the First World War.

Next post is the Bezhuidenhout Farm (1850s) and graveyard. I captured what is left of the graveyard as much of it had been vandalised.
The farm was one of the last to be sold after gold was discovered and covers the valley from what is now Doornfontein in the west all the way through to Bruma/Eastgate in the east.

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Reference:

Van Der Waal, G-M, 1986. Van mynkamp tot metropolis. Pretoria: Chris Van Rensburg Publications

 

Barry, M & Law, N, 1985.Magnates and Mansions-Johannesburg 1886-1914. Johannesburg: Lowry Publishers

Updates:

Added new photos, text and corrections 29 September 2018