Highlands House history
Search For the First Home
The search for a suitable property for the Aged Home was challenging and lengthy, unlike the relatively swift acquisition of a building for the Cape Jewish Orphanage. In 1911, the Orphanage Committee quickly settled on a building owned by its president, Joseph Kadish, which was ready for occupation within six months. However, the Aged Home committee, despite having several members from the Orphanage committee, took a full four years before it first acquired and renovated a suitable building at 16 Montrose Avenue.
In February 1917, nine months after the initial meeting, the fund for the Age Home had increased to just over GBP 330. However, the number of elderly needing a Home has risen to twenty. Maurice Eilenberg offered a site in Hope Street, and an architect, a non-Jew, Ernst Seeliger, drew up the plans for a double-storey building, estimated to cost between GBP 4,000-5,000. Despite the growing number of subscribers, which reached 1,000 by November, and the boost in funds from a legacy of GBP 75 from Mr Alschwang in 1918, it was decided to hire a house as an interim measure.
Early in 1918, an advertisement was inserted in a local paper for a residence with a “Large Dining room, Two Sick Rooms, Woman’s Work Room, Minyan Room, Large Kitchen, Reception Room, Two Double Bedrooms, 16 Singel Rooms, Three Bedrooms downstairs, Linine Room, Two Bathrooms, Two Lavatories, Servant’s Room and Lavatory.”
In June 1918, the search for suitable premises led to the discovery of a property named Krynauw’s Hof. This triangular piece of ground, with frontages to Hope Street, Incholm Place and Wandel Street, was strategically located. The main building, an old Dutch House in a state of good repair, fronted Incholm Place and consisted of about a dozen rooms. Round in Wandel Street was Ivy Cottage and other buildings. The property was conveniently situated on the level, equidistant from both synagogues, the Cape Town Hebrew congregation and the Vredehoek Hebrew congregation. It was also closely adjacent to the Zionist Hall in Hope Street and just above the Ladies Christian Home.
The property had been put up for public auction and knocked down provisionally to the Sub-Committee at a sum more than the available resources. After further interviewing the sellers, they granted an option to purchase at GBP 5,000, but with the proviso that the option would expire at noon. Since authority for a general meeting could not be obtained in time, personal surety was undertaken by M Harris, M Rosen, M Eilenberg, N Wittenberg, A Silbert, L Pinn, S Zackon and H Liberman. Transfer was taken only late in 1918.
It was decided at the outset that a third of the property would be allocated to the Hebrew school, the Talmud Torah. The idea of the building having been abandoned, Maurice Eilenberg offered to contribute the cost of the piece of ground he had intended to donate towards the renovation of the Krynauw Hof property. In 1918, the project was again delayed by the outbreak of the flu epidemic. It was not until July 1919 that the architects William Black & Fagg drew up detailed plans for the renovation of the building. Owing to post-war conditions, half the house was sold off to the Talmud Torah School, while to attract donations of GBP 100 and over, donors were enticed by the honour of having their names inscribed on particular rooms. Finally, reconstruction work began in earnest, and gifts of furnishings and furniture started to flow. These included curtains, cooking pots, crockery, chairs, towels, a hall stand, beds and blankets.
Acknowledgement
Our thanks to Veronica Penkin Belling, who compiled the majority of our historical archives into a Centennial Volume published in 2016, ISBN 0780620718110