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Location | Bloemfontein, South Africa |
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Coordinates | 29°07′11″S26°12′56″E / 29.1196°S 26.2155°E |
Type | Military museum |
Visitors | Monday to Friday 08:00 – 16:00 |
The Old Presidency or Ou Presidensie (Afrikaans) is a museum, art gallery and theatre in the city of Bloemfontein, South Africa, located on President Brand Street in the heart of the city. The former residence of the President of the Republic of the Orange Free State from 1886 until 1899 when the city fell to the British Empire during the Second Anglo-Boer War.
A trekboer family with the surname of Brits settled on the site in the 1820s and built a thatched A-frame dwelling for themselves. Major Henry Douglas Warden (then the British resident for the area north of the Orange River) purchased it from the Brits family in 1846. The thatched-house built by the Brits family was demolished and the house he (Warden) erected began as a small farm building which was made out of sun-dried bricks. It is referred to as a 'nederige kleihuis' (Afrikaans for humble clay-house). In 1854, The British Government abandoned the Orange River Sovereignty and the Boer Republic then took over the residence. [1] [2] This independence saw the new presidents of the republic take up quarters in the "Residency", reportedly Presidents Josias Philip Hoffman, Jacobus Nicolaas Boshoff and Marthinus Wessel Pretorius. [3] They all lived in the dwelling during their terms in office. In 1860, the Volksraad (The parliament of the former Orange Free State Republic, which existed from 1857 to 1902) approved plans for a new Presidency house. At that time, the Volksraad could only afford £800 for the restoration of the old residency. Additional repairs were carried out in 1864 and 1874. [4]
In the early 1880s the Volksraad decided that the cost of maintenance was unfeasible and that the building was no longer suitable as the official residence of the head of state of an independent country. Thus in 1882 President Johannes Brand submitted plans for a competition to design the 'new' Presidency to the Volksraad. There were in total 27 proposals submitted in 1884 for the prize money of £100. An international architectural competition was held and won by English architects – Lennox Canning and F Goad of Canning & Goad Architects. [5] [6] [7] The construction of the building was budgeted at £10,000, but the design submitted by Canning was too sophisticated and even after being asked to simplify their design, it still amounted to £12, 200. With some reluctance, this was accepted. The excavation of new foundations for the new building was deemed too costly, subsequently it was decided to build the new building on the foundation of the old one. . [8]
Construction started on 22 May 1885, when the foundation stone was laid, and the building was completed in 1886 with President Brand taking up quarters until his death in 1888. Presidents F.W. Reitz (1888–95) and M.T. Steyn (1896-1900) also resided in the building until the British occupation of Bloemfontein on 13 March 1900 when the building served as the headquarters of Field-Marshal Lord Roberts during the Second Anglo-Boer War. [9]
After the British captured Bloemfontein on 13 March 1900, the building became known as the Government House and was occupied by Lord Roberts and his officers; and later by Sir Hamilton J Goold-Adams (1901-1910) who was the Lieutenant-Governor of the Orange River Colony. [10] During the time of Goold-Adams, the architect Sir Herbert Baker made some additions to the Presidency and also added the stables to the back of the house. Along the years, the Presidency served as the following:
The stables at the back of the building are thought to be haunted with several reports of people hearing carriages moving into the stables. The premises reportedly house the ghost of a dog with many people hearing ephemeral barking at night. There are also many stories of children being spotted within the building due to the buildings tenure as a school and hostel. [13]
The building was restored from 1973 to 1983. The museum mainly focuses on the lives and history of the three heads of state (Brand, Reitz and Steyn) during their respective terms of office. [14] This site was originally declared a national monument on 27 January 1938 and later revised 15 December 1989 to the following:
The museum has other attractions including "art exhibitions, musical events and theatrical productions" and the gardens outside prove to be a popular site for photography. The museum is open during the week. [16]
Bloemfontein, also known as Bloem, is the capital and the largest city of the Free State province in South Africa. It is often, and has been traditionally, referred to as the country's "judicial capital", alongside the legislative capital Cape Town and administrative capital Pretoria, although the highest court in South Africa, the Constitutional Court, has been in Johannesburg since 1994.
Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, better known as Paul Kruger, was a South African politician. He was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South Africa, and State President of the South African Republic from 1883 to 1900. Nicknamed Oom Paul, he came to international prominence as the face of the Boer cause—that of the Transvaal and its neighbour the Orange Free State—against Britain during the Second Boer War of 1899–1902. He has been called a personification of Afrikanerdom, and remains a controversial figure; admirers venerate him as a tragic folk hero.
The Orange Free State was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the British Empire at the end of the Second Boer War in 1902. It is one of the three historical precursors to the present-day Free State province.
The Orange River Colony was the British colony created after Britain first occupied (1900) and then annexed (1902) the independent Orange Free State in the Second Boer War. The colony ceased to exist in 1910, when it was absorbed into the Union of South Africa as the Orange Free State Province.
The Boer republics were independent, self-governing republics formed by Dutch-speaking inhabitants of the Cape Colony and their descendants. The founders – variously named Trekboers, Boers and Voortrekkers – settled mainly in the middle, northern, north-eastern and eastern parts of present-day South Africa. Two of the Boer republics achieved international recognition and complete independence: the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. The republics did not provide for the separation of church and state, initially allowing only the Dutch Reformed Church, and later also other Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition. The republics came to an end after the Second Boer War of 1899–1902, which resulted in British annexation and later incorporation of their lands into the Union of South Africa.
MartinusTheunis Steyn was a South African lawyer, politician, and statesman. He was the sixth and last president of the independent Orange Free State from 1896 to 1902.
Grey College is a semi-private English & Afrikaans medium school for boys situated in the suburb of Universitas in Bloemfontein in the Free State province of South Africa, it is one of the 23 Milner Schools. The sister school is Eunice High School (Bloemfontein).
Heilbron is a small farming town in the Free State province of South Africa which services the cattle, dairy, sorghum, sunflower and maize industries. Raw stock beneficiation occurs in leisure foods, dairy products and stock feeds. It also serves as a dormitory town for the Gauteng metropolis.
Christiaan Rudolf de Wet was a Boer general, rebel leader and politician.
Francis William Reitz, Jr. was a South African lawyer, politician, statesman, publicist, and poet who was a member of parliament of the Cape Colony, Chief Justice and fifth State President of the Orange Free State, State Secretary of the South African Republic at the time of the Second Boer War, and the first president of the Senate of the Union of South Africa.
Jacobus Nicolaas Boshof was a South African (Boer) statesman, a late-arriving member of the Voortrekker movement, and the second state president of the Orange Free State, in office from 1855 to 1859.
The Bloemfontein Conference was a meeting that took place at the railway station of Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State from 31 May until 5 June 1899. The main issue dealt with the status of British migrant workers called "Uitlanders", who mined the gold fields in Transvaal.
Pieter Jeremias Blignaut was a South African (Boer) civil servant, Government Secretary of the Orange Free State (1879–1902), and served twice as Acting State President, first after the death of President Brand (1888–1889), and again after the resignation of President Reitz in 1895–1896. After the conclusion of the South African War, Blignaut served as member of both the legislative council and the Legislative Assembly of the Orange River Colony. He was also a member of several state commissions.
Sir John George Fraser was a prominent Orange Free State lawyer, politician, statesman and member of the Volksraad. He was knighted in 1905.
Sir Cornelius Hermanus Wessels was a South African statesman.
Jan Willem Spruyt, also known as Jan Willem Spruijt and Jan Willem Landskroon Spruijt (birthname), was a South African civil servant, lawyer and statesman of Dutch descent. Spruyt was government secretary (1856–1862) and several times acting state president of the Orange Free State, and state secretary of the South African Republic (1866–1869).
Johan Arnold Smellekamp was a Dutchman who pioneered trade with the Boer Voortrekker states in South Africa and later became a civil servant, politician and law agent in the Orange Free State.
The Transvaal Civil War was a series of skirmishes during the early 1860s in the South African Republic, or Transvaal, in the area now comprising the Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and North West provinces of South Africa. It began after the British government had recognised trekkers living in the Transvaal as independent in 1854. The Boers divided into numerous political factions. The war ended in 1864, when an armistice treaty was signed under a karee tree south of the site of the later town of Brits.
The National Afrikaans Literary Museum and Research Centre is a central archive for material and information on the history, development, and scope of literature, music, and drama in the Afrikaans language. The NALN was founded in 1973 by the Free State provincial government and is based in Bloemfontein, South Africa. It operates as a nonprofit organization. The hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 - 16:00.
The Fourth Raadsaal is a historic building in Bloemfontein, South Africa, which serves as the meeting place of the Free State Provincial Legislature, the legislature of the Free State. It is located opposite the Supreme Court of Appeal in President Brand Street.
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