Your guide to Heidelberg Gauteng
#Harvey's Chemist
Heritage Blue Plaque #Nr 40
HARVEY'S CHEMIST - 38 Ueckermann Street
What is the story here?
Harvey was born in Verulam in Natal on the July 8, 1861. During the second Anglo Boer War Harvey and his good friend Dr O’Reilly was arrested on October 12, 1900 and sent to Cape Town. Reports came out that Harvey used his farm as a Boer Post Office, and that the letters had been taking there secretly in the Doctor’s cart. Dr O’Reilly and Harvey where both members of the Red Cross.
THE HISTORY OF HARVEY’S PHARMACY AND MAYOR WALTER HARVEY
THE BLUE PLAQUE RECOGNITION (2022)
The historic commercial site of Harvey’s Pharmacy achieved formal preservation status on 25 February 2022. During an official community ceremony, the Heidelberg Heritage Association - represented by local historian Mr Tony Burisch - formally awarded a prestigious Blue Heritage Plaque to the property on Ueckermann Street.
The installation was sponsored by local resident Mr Jaco Coetzer. The site is catalogued alongside Blue Plaque Number 16, which was originally registered within the association's heritage master index on 1 September 2021.
THE PHARMACEUTICAL PRACTICE AND CIVIC CAREER (1923)
Walter Harvey was born on 8 July 1861 and established a highly successful professional practice as a premier retail chemist in early Heidelberg. His business, Harvey’s Pharmacy, operated for several decades from a prominent storefront located directly adjacent to the historic Old Standard Bank building on Ueckermann Street.
Following his humanitarian service during the Second Anglo-Boer War - which included field medical work alongside the Red Cross that resulted in his brief arrest by British occupying forces in October 1900 - Harvey returned to town to expand his business and enter local public service.
He rose to become an influential political figure within the municipal administration and was officially elected to serve as the Mayor of Heidelberg in 1923. It was during his mayoral tenure in 1923 that he successfully opened the landmark Old Landbank building, personally laying the structural foundation stone for the civic project.
FAMILY LINEAGE AND THE KLOOF INTERMENTS (1938 - 1953)
Walter Harvey passed away in Heidelberg on 27 October 1938 at the age of 77, widely respected as a prominent pioneer merchant and civic leader. His wife, Jessie Elliott Harvey, who was born in Scotland on 13 September 1868, survived her husband by fifteen years, passing away on 16 July 1953 at the age of 84.
Both are permanently interred alongside one another inside the family plot at the historic Heidelberg Kloof Cemetery, where their tombstones continue to preserve their historical timeline for the town.
SOURCES AND CREDITS
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Primary Historiography: Derived from the news article written by journalist Eugene Viljoen published in the 2 March 2022 edition of the Heidelberg Nigel Heraut.
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Military and Civic Records: Supplemented by historical profiles in "Heidelbergers of the Boer War" by Ian Uys, and the property registration logs of the Heidelberg Heritage Association.
