Arts, Culture & Heritage
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Blue Plaque Sites

Weltevreden Farmhouse

Table of Contents

Address

Corner of J.G. Strydom Drive and Tennis Road, Weltevreden Park Ext. 25
2007

Inscription

WELTEVREDEN FARMHOUSE The house dating from 1861 is one of the oldest in Johannesburg. For over 130 years, the farm was owned by the family of Cornelis Johannes Smit (born 1829). Each generation added to the character of the house. It begn as a three- roomed structure with walls of mud brick, a yellowwood ceiling and thatch roof. A tornado destroyed the thatched roof in 1879, to be replaced with the present corrugated iron roof. By the late 1930s Cape Dutch gables were added. In 2007 the farmhouse was incorporated in the Gables Office Estate.

Photo courtesy: Kabelo Mokoena (Sunday Times)

Explore Joburg

A culmination of research gathered over many years, the Online Johannesburg Heritage Register is being launched on Nelson Mandela Day 18 July 2025.

Among the many heritage sites featured is Chancellor House, the downtown offices of Mandela and Tambo Attorneys in the 1950s. After having been vacant and shuttered for more than a decade, this iconic building is being revived and brought to life once again as offices for the Community Development Department, which oversees the City’s Arts, Culture & Heritage Services.

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