Two unlikely men met during 1917 in Letchworth, England which directly led to the founding of Pinelands, the first Garden City in South Africa. Ebenezer Howard was an urban planner and inventor. Richard Stuttaford was a South African politician, philanthropist and businessman. Howard, living in Stamford Hill, was an unassuming person and in the words […]
At 3 am on the morning of December 1967, three of the four heart surgeons and an assistant standing around the operating table at Groote Schuur Hospital had all lived in Pinelands. On the table was Louis Washkansky, the recipient of the world’s first human-to-human heart transplant. The operation took three hours and forty-five minutes
Pinelands and Fish Hoek had a national reputation of being the only major suburbs in the country, seen as “dry”, with no bottle stores. Fish Hoek had a legal restriction which was overcome in recent years. However, in Pinelands, where there is no legal restriction, the suburb remains “dry”. Many suburbs make contact with Pinelands
The small Catholic community in Pinelands became an independent parish in 1946 but had no church building. While Holy Mass took place at the Civic Hall, baptisms, funerals and weddings took place at St Patricks in Mowbray. The parish priest lived at Vincent Pallotti as the chaplain to the sister’s congregation. The church was originally
The spiritual needs of the predominantly Christian residents of Pinelands were met at first by group meetings in the homes of residents. In most cases they outgrew homes and had to make use of the Town Hall and the Girl Guides Hall before being able to build their own churches. While the churches cater for
The tragedy of a house on fire is not an unusual experience for Pinelands residents. With the large number of thatched houses, fire prevention and fire services have been an essential part of Pinelands since the late 1930s. It is incredible to think that prior to that there were no fire hydrants in Pinelands. When
The many vleis in the Pinelands area attracted yellow billed duck, pheasants and partridges, but also attracted mosquitoes which plagued residents. In the thick bush, duiker and hare were commonplace. Buck were still found in the area, with the claim that the last Steenbok was shot by Mr Maag outside his house in Central Avenue.
Richard Stuttaford was looking for a suitable site to build a town in South Africa similar to Letchworth in England which had been built based on the Garden City concept of Ebenezer Howard. The Spanish Influenza Epidemic of 1918 effected two out of every three residents in Cape Town, which had a population of 199 570.
The Elsieskraal has been the source of pleasure and pain for those living in Pinelands. Jose Burman in his book Safe to the Sea writes “The Elsieskraal is a river of history, intimately connected with the Development of the early Cape, from its source where it supplied the lifeblood of the pioneer farms to its
The area around the BP Garage on Forest Drive and extending over the Oval was once the site of the largest brickfields in the southern hemisphere with reputedly the best bricks in Africa. A railway line stretched from the Francis Road area through Scouts Place and across the lower Oval to its junction at the
