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This
ornate late Victorian building, together with its
neighbour are the only surviving academic buildings of
the original four on College Square, the first planned
campus of the Victoria College - predecessor of the
University of Stellenbosch. Contemporaneous, but less
ornate, are the semi-detached dwellings dated 1896, and
a stylistically similar but separate house, opposite the
library at 16 - 26 Crozier Street. Instead of graceful
gables, "corrugated iron architecture"
contributes elegant verandas, embellished with cast-iron
elements, fretted barge-boards, and often buxom
bay-windows as well.
VICTORIA
COLLEGE BUILDING (OU HOOFGEBOU) (1886)
Ryneveld Street
Erected as a "more
dignified" commemoration of the town’s
bicentenary in opposition to the planned
"frivolous" town hall! Designed in the Greek
Revival style by Carl Otto Hager as the first full scale
academic building for the Stellenbosch College, which
was renamed the Victoria College the following year in
commemoration of the British Monarch’s golden jubilee.
These
double-storey houses were erected to help alleviate the
housing shortage of students circa 1900. Crozier House,
with its wooden balustrades as focus, is certainly the
more successful design.
WILGENHOF
c/o Victoria and Ryneveld Street
This is the first of many
historical buildings that became students’ housing.
Its oblique position reflects the direction of an old
wagon road from the village some three centuries ago. In
1880 the homestead was converted into a double storey,
later known as "Bachelors." After the
Anglo-Boer War the outbuildings were consolidated and
another storey was added, hence the nickname of
"Bekfluitjie" ("mouth-organ"); a
name that survives in the new three storey residence
(1965).
