September 27, 2002
By Lucille Davie
ART DECO figurines, a Jackson Hlungwane sculpture, a late Victorian parlour, a Voortrekker pioneer lounge, a 1699 Dutch family bible, a soft jackal skin karos, Walter Battiss and Maggie Laubscher paintings . . . and much more is on display at the Roodepoort Museum.
The Museum, from an original collection started in 1963, is housed in the Roodepoort Civic Centre building in the centre of the city, some 20 kilometres west of Johannesburg's CBD.
There's a lot to see in this immaculate but small museum in Roodepoort. There's a complete early Voortrekker house - a kitchen, a voorkamer, and a bedroom, all jammed with period furniture and the necessities of 19th Century life. This gives way to a very authentic late Victorian parlour and bedroom, allowing the visitor to step back 100 years.
Another room represents a 1920s lounge, complete with stand-up long-playing record player with 6-7 millimetre records, and Shirley Temple doll. And still another lounge is full of 1930s Art Deco shapes and ornaments, and a wonderful drum-shaped gramophone.
The Museum has a small but beautiful collection of porcelain, china and figurines, from Royal Dux and Royal Dorchester to Chinese, Japanese and Dutch bowls and vases. Around the corner is a brief collection of works by artists including Walter Battiss, Jackson Hlungwane, Maggie Laubscher and Jacob Pierneef.
Interior of Voortrekker kitchen
The museum has a new exhibition in its foyer every month. This month it's a small travelling Egyptian exhibition which includes miniature replicas of the Sphinx, various Egyptian gods, a Cheops boat, and Hieroglyphic friezes, one from Queen Hatshepsut's obelisk.
Roodepoort, meaning "red valley" in Afrikaans, is a sprawling residential area, in parts dominated by light industry and small businesses. It gets its name from the red soil in the area. It dates back to 1884, when Fred Struben discovered the first payable gold in the area at what he called the Confidence Reef, a large rocky outcrop in the centre of Roodepoort.
At the time the area was settled by scattered Boer farmers on nine farms. Four of the farms - Roodepoort, Vogelstruisfontein, Paardekraal and Wilgrespruit - were soon declared public diggings.
A shantytown sprang up. Between 1886 and 1888, four mining towns, Roodepoort, Florida, Hamberg and Maraisburg, were proclaimed. The Goldfields Diggers Committee was formed in 1886 to represent the farmers' interests. This was the first form of local government in the area, which became known as Roodepoort-Maraisburg.
The search for gold spread, and in 1886 the main reef at Langlaagte in Johannesburg was discovered. The gold at Confidence Reef, mostly surface gold in quartz rock, soon ran out, but by then a settled community was established in Roodepoort.
In 1903 the Roodepoort-Maraisburg Urban District Board was established, and the first election was held in January 1904. The status of the Board was soon raised to that of a municipality, and in 1963 the Roodepoort-Maraisburg municipality was changed to Roodepoort and city status was granted in 1977.
The city retains some of its early historic buildings. The Old House on the corner of 3rd Street and Boundary Road consists of an early three-roomed wood and iron structure, which soon had a verandah and railing added to become an attractive cottage. The old municipal offices in Berlandina Street, an attractive plaster and stone building now used as a Roodepoort branch library, were declared a national monument in 1985. Another national monument is the old Roodepoort Town School in Rex Street, on the site of the original building erected in 1894.
The Roodepoort Museum is in Christiaan de Wet Road and is a popular venue for school tours. It is open Tuesdays to Fridays from 9.30am to 4.30pm, and Sundays from 2pm to 5pm. Phone the Museum on 011 761 0225 for more details. Visit their website.
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