Your guide to Heidelberg Gauteng
#Oakview Manor
Heritage Blue Plaque #Nr 9
OAK VIEW MANOR - 66 Fenter Street
What is the story here?
Built in 1917 in a Cape Dutch design. The house has been in the Erasmus family since the 1960s. Dr. Edward John Nixon (1858-1939) and Servaas Daniel De Wet lived here. Dr Nixon was 2nd in command to the Heidelberg Volunteers, district surgeon, master of the Heidelberg Free Mason lodge and a member of the Heidelberg Club. The house was named “Oak View Manor” in 2017 and is now a guest house and restaurant.
From doing some research it was discovered that the house was commissioned by Dr Nixon and not by Servaas Daniel De Wet as previously written. Servaas De Wet Junior, must of owned the property after Dr Nixon. There are 2 headstones in the Kloof Cemetery. Servaas De Wet Senior was more or less the same age as Dr Nixon.
It was also discovered that Sir Herbert Baker could not have designed the house as he had left for India in 1913 and the house was built in 1917. It is very much a Herbert Copy though. There were shutters that have been removed. The original windows have been removed and 3 of them are used in the garage.
Dina, the present owner, told me that the property used to go all the way to the Blesbok River and that her parents had sub-divided the property. She showed me the old bricks that had been removed while renovating. One was embossed with “Newcastle” and the other “Vereeniging Brick and Tile”. A bit of a mystery the brick embossed “Newcastle”. Were the bricks made in Newcastle, South Africa and transported here?
According to the book “Geskiedenis van Heidelberg” by JJ Smit the first registered owners were J Rupell.
Dr Edward John Nixon
Dr Edward John Nixon (1858-1939), came from Manchester. He was a loyal friend and medical colleague to Dr. O’Reilly. Dr Nixon replaced Dr O’Reilly as the District Surgeon, when Dr O’Reilly retired. (Interestingly the “Fleur De Lis” emblem on the fireplace is of the Manchester Regiment)
In the 2nd Anglo Boer War he joined the Imperial Light Horse and served with them at Elandslaagte and Ladysmith, for which he was decorated. It was here, in Ladysmith, that he must have met Brevet Major Vallentin. Dr Nixon was commissioned as a lieutenant and became second in command to Vallentin’s Heidelberg Volunteers and became the commander when Vallentin died in battle at Onverwacht on the 4th of January 1902.
Dr Nixon was a Free Mason and served in the chair as Master of the Heidelberg Lodge for the two years preceding the war. (1898-1899) He was also Master in 1907-8 and 1914. He was a member of the Heidelberg Club. He married Ellen Elizabeth Philipson. Sadly she died tragically in 1935, aged 64, while recuperating from an operation. She was smothered by the cat which slept with her. She is buried in the Kloof Cemetery. Dr Nixon died four years later aged 81 and is buried next to her.
Here is a short story by the current owner.....
On 2 July 2021 this property received its blue heritage plaque from the Heidelberg Heritage Association. Built in 1917, using mostly imported materials, this stately old Cape Dutch building on the corner of Fenter and Merz was once home to Dr Edward John Nixon, second in command of the Heidelberg Volunteers, district surgeon, master of the Free Mason Lodge, and a member of the Heidelberg Club.
In the late 1930s a young girl named Loudina Delina (Lienie) Lindeque stood in the street outside this beautiful old house that she adored, looked up at its giant gables, and vowed that someday she would call it home. At around the same time, Lienie also lost her heart to a skilful young boy at school, nicknamed Koos Mechanic (a title well-earned for always getting their dodgy old school bus going again whenever it broke down). In her twenties, she married her high school sweetheart, Jacobus Petrus (Koos) Erasmus, and while he founded his own logistics business, International Transport Company, she launched her own decorating business, Loudina’s, and started investing in quaint heritage properties. In 1960 she finally made good on her childhood promise when she convinced the love of her life to buy her the house of her dreams at 66 Fenter street.
Here, Koos and Lienie raised their three children, Thinus, Peet, and Dina, and when the time came to accommodate ageing grandparents too, they converted the spacious loft of the house into additional bedrooms and turned an old outbuilding into a large granny flat.
In rather prophetic fashion, Lienie named this home ‘Laaste Skof’ (Last Shift), and here she loved and shaped her kids, hosted family and friends, decorated to her heart’s content, mourned the loss of, among others, her parents, husband, and grandson, but also created a lifetime of happy memories until her final days in September 2018.
The property remains in the care of the Erasmus family and in 2017 Dina renamed it Oak View Manor (in reference to its majestic century-old oak) and sensitively repurposed it to serve not only as their home, but also a guesthouse, intimate function venue, coffee shop and house restaurant. Oak View Manor is today a 6-time Airbnb Superhost and a Booking.com Traveller Review Awards 2021 winner with a score of 9.8 out of 10.
The resident hospitality team is Dina Devine (née Erasmus), Werna Strauss (Her Majesties’ Salon), and Gavin Crewe, and together they make sure that guests get to eat, stay and play at leisure.
For more information, business hours, or to view this property, contact Dina on 082 707 2334, or find them on Instagram and Facebook as Oak View Manor Heidelberg.
(Written by Dina – 7th July 2021)
