This cottage was original the Barn/Coach House of the Goodwin Family. They owned most of the block, with their house being at No 1 Van Der Westhuizen Street.

(See previous post on the 5th of June 2021, 4. Goodwin Family)

This structure was originally 3 stands down close to the corner of Du Preez Street and must have been built just after 1881, when the Goodwin’s arrived in Heidelberg.
Let Juan Postma, (9 years old at the time), who helped his mother move the barn explain.

"ABOUT THE “CRAB-APPLE COTTAGE”.
Basically there were two phases to this. Phase 1 was to relocate (and save) the original structure by taking it down in a very organised manner starting with the roof. It was dismantled with the greatest care as it was going to be put back together using all the original material to contain expenses. My mother, Audrey Elizabeth Postma, always loved antiques and old buildings, it was due to this passion of hers that we relocated to Heidelberg and bought the old Goodwin house. It was also thanks to her love of old buildings that the old dilapidated barn was saved from certain destruction. She spent months convincing my dad to move it onto our property. She had already charmed “ownership” of the structure off Mr. Hilton that gifted it to her for R50.

 
I think the most appropriate term would have been a “barn”. The exact dimensions of the original structure applied to the relocated structure as that was the only way the sandstone blocks could go back up exactly the same way (and sequence) they came down, as well as to facilitate using the original roofing materials. We knew that each stone had been crafted to fit exactly where it was so the only way to put this “jigsaw” of stone together the same way it was, was to take it down block for block and lay it out on our property, face down exactly in the same place position as it was. Picture a cardboard box, cut down each corner to lay open and flat on the floor – that’s what we did with that old barn. Where-ever you looked was rocks packed out like a jigsaw in our garden.

 My mom dismantled all the sandstone walls during the week while my dad was at work. She used his flat nose screwdrivers to scrape out the mud from between the sandstone blocks, and then we would push it off to fall on rubber tyres below so they wouldn’t break. After school in the afternoons, I would then move these rocks on a wheel barrow onto our property, taking great care to pack them in sequence, row for row as we removed them. If a rock was too big for me, I left a space for it so my dad could help me that night after work to load and move it into position. It was a colossal undertaking by the family, I was like 9/10 at the time, but was always a big guy and literally double the size of my classmates so moving these rocks wasn’t a problem.

 

It was a messy and tiresome job but hats off to my mother, she stuck to her guns and we moved that building!
The only change that was made was to change the single opening facing the main house on the “short “ side of the structure, to two garage door entrances on the “long” side facing the street. We obviously added windows in the roof facing the street at the same time to give light to the interior. She and my dad then already said that this building would eventually become their home the day they retire. The eventual sale of “Goodwin House” was their “pension”. 

 (I was still in primary school when we used the attic of the rebuilt structure as our “den”. There was also an old well to the left of the original structure location that my dad tried to fill with all the rubble and debris as it was a real hazard. Just a huge bottomless crater in the ground with crumbling earth border. 
In those days that entire block had a wall around it with no other buildings  other than a small house and property at the bottom corner of Jordaan street – a small RDP- style structure that I think Mr Hilton put up for whatever reason at some point.

 Mr Hilton was a businessman from Johannesburg and also resided somewhere in Jhb, I don’t know if he ever actually lived in the house at 1 v/d Westhuizen street as it was very derelict and unkempt when my folks bought it. Hilton subdivided and developed all the properties directly in front of the old house – the others he sold as vacant land that people purchased and developed over the years subsequent to his development of the initial set of houses he put up.)

Phase 2. Was the conversion of the then double garage to “Crab-apple Cottage”. Again my mom was the brain and motivator behind the conversion to the very last detail. An entrance was made to the back side of the building and a veranda added, using the rock that had been removed creating the additional entrance. Floor boards were added upstairs, a stairwell built and the floor beams reinforced with a steel I-beam support that spanned the length of the structure. The “workshop” became the kitchen and plumbing fitted. Upstairs a bathroom and toilet was added. 

They basically squatted in the place as they transformed it around them. The sale proceeds of the Goodwin House basically funded the subdivision and creation of Crab-apple Cottage. My parents always did everything themselves, the whole family had to help. Very seldom did they source specialist help for anything.
The origin and materials of Crabapple Cottage is the old barn of the Goodwin House. Crab-apple Cottage was my mother’s creation and represents a lifetime spent restoring and saving both the barn and Goodwin House. All we ever seemed to do growing up was refurbishing from one weekend to the next. Even after getting married and having our own kids we still, spent many a weekend with them helping with “projects”. The precast wall for the subdivision my wife and I put up! I could keep you entertained for hours with stories of all that was done there in our lifetime.

(Source: Edited email received from Juan Postma)
(Note by Tony Burisch: It is interesting to note that Juan is a descendant of Dirk Postma who founded the “Dopper Church”)