What is the story here?

The mansion was built by J.S. Joubert in 1906. The house currently consists of fourteen rooms: 4 bedrooms, a men’s smoking room, a ladies lounge, entrance hall, a TV room (originally a bedroom), a bathroom, toilet, breakfast room, dining room, kitchen, pantry and a hallway which is 17,6m long and 1,8m wide.  All the furniture was custom-made in England. The cutlery, an exact copy of that was used at Buckingham Palace, velvet embossed Martin and Webb Curtains were imported. The Dinner service was custom-made with the family monogram incorporated in the design. Unfortunately, many of these possessions were divided after his death.

THE HISTORY OF THE DE RUST MANSION AND THE BEZUIDENHOUT LINEAGE

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THE COMMISSION AND IMPERIAL GRAND DESIGN OF DE RUST (1906)

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The stately Victorian mansion traditionally known as "De Rust" stands as one of the most structurally grand and politically significant estates in the Heidelberg district. Constructed in 1906 at a total cost of £6,000, the mansion was commissioned by the exceptionally wealthy mining tycoon, Mr Frederik Jacobus Bezuidenhout (Second Generation), and his wife, Wilhelmina Christina Johanna Bezuidenhout (née Meyer).

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The Bezuidenhouts contracted the celebrated architect Carel August Meischke to draft the primary building plans. Meischke achieved national prominence during the late ZAR and early Union eras for designing major public state buildings across Johannesburg and Pretoria, most notably the historic Rissik Street Post Office.

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The physical construction contract was awarded to Heidelberg's master builder, Mr J.S. Joubert, who utilized his work on De Rust to secure a prestigious commission to later assist with erecting the Union Buildings in Pretoria. (Local heritage records note that Joubert resided inside a smaller-scale architectural replica of De Rust that he built on West Street, and he served as the primary contractor responsible for constructing Laer Volkskool, Hoër Volkskool, and the three historic church hostels).

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The sheer grandeur and structural scale of the 22-room mansion was explicitly calculated by Bezuidenhout to serve as an architectural statement of anti-imperial defiance and social "one-upmanship" directed toward the British authorities following the deep humiliation of the Boer defeat.

Erected on a sprawling 6-morgen plot of land just outside the town perimeter on the farm Boschfontein, the mansion featured 6 primary bedrooms and a vast array of formal reception rooms custom-built to comfortably house the couple's 12 children.

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The estate achieved immediate fame across the colony as a technological marvel, operating as the very first private home in the region - likely predating contemporary mansions inside Johannesburg - to be fully outfitted with independent electrical wiring and an integrated indoor sewerage infrastructure. At the time of installation, the local conservative community widely viewed indoor flushing toilets as bizarre, odd, and even dangerously unhygienic.

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THE GLOBAL SOURCING OF EXOTIC MATERIALS

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To fulfill his vision of creating a miniature "Buckingham Palace" on the highveld, Bezuidenhout and his wife bypassed local markets to import the vast majority of the mansion's building materials and structural fittings directly from overseas markets:

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• The Furnishings and Plumbing: The entire suite of luxury household furniture and porcelain internal sanitary ware was ordered directly out of a commercial catalog from England. The original period furniture was subsequently extracted from the home by Bes Liebenberg (the wife of later custodian Cor Liebenberg), who preferred modern aesthetics; she systematically distributed the priceless original Bezuidenhout furniture pieces among the various family descendants.

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• The Textiles and Masonry: The primary interior wallpapers and heavy matching velvet window curtains were shipped to the site inside specialized shipping crates from England. The highly intricate, colorful mosaic floor tiles anchoring the grand main entrance hallway were imported directly from Italy, while the primary floorboards throughout the home were milled from premium raw pine timber imported from Oregon in the United States.

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• The Hearth and Façade trimmings: The mansion featured four independent, massive fireplaces meticulously crafted from solid rosewood, decorated with hand-carved mantelpieces, inset mirrors, and polished brass trimmings. The primary external entrance doors and the door leading from the men's private smoking room onto the open veranda were decorated with vibrant, custom-leaded stained-glass windows.

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• The Ceilings and Brookie Lace: Every ceiling throughout the expansive 22-room floor plan was formed from imported pressed steel panels. The sweeping exterior veranda completely encircled the residence, decorated with intricate decorative cast-iron balustrades imported from Glasgow, Scotland, capped with a hand-polished wooden rail, and finished with elaborate "brookie lace" iron trims running along the entire roofline.

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GENEALOGICAL TRANSITIONS: THE FIRST GENERATION IN THE RAND

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The foundational wealth of the Bezuidenhout family dates back to the early pioneer exploration of the Witwatersrand basin, spanning a clear multi-generational lineage:

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• Frederik Jacobus Bezuidenhout (First Generation, 1825 – 1900): Arrived on the highveld plains of Braamfontein in 1834 on an early reconnaissance trek, accompanied only by a local Hottentot laborer, two transport oxen, and two horses. Following an ambush where a wild lion killed one of their oxen, the party retreated to the security of Beaufort West in the Cape Colony. He returned permanently in 1837, establishing a frontier homestead on the terrain currently occupied by the modern gasworks in Braamfontein. He married his immediate neighbor's daughter, Miss Judith Cornelia Etresia Viljoen (1831 – 1904), in whose honor the Johannesburg suburb of Judith’s Paarl was subsequently named. Upon the death of his father-in-law, Bezuidenhout inherited the farm Doornfontein. Following the historic discovery of gold, Doornfontein became the premier residential sector where the fabulously wealthy Gold Rand Lords constructed their primary stone mansions, and the adjacent valley was permanently named Bezuidenhout Valley. The senior patriarch later expanded his empire by purchasing the farm Turffontein, and upon his death, he was buried inside the family cemetery at Bez Valley. The marriage of the first generation produced seven children:

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• 1.  

     Frederik Jacobus (20 July 1851 – 14 February 1924) - Inherited De Rust.

  2. Barend Christiaan (3 February 1859 – 20 July 1925) - Interred at Bez Valley.

  3. Jacomina Hendrina Johanna (Later Meyer, 1 December 1861 – 30 December 1927) - Interred within the Heidelberg Concentration Camp Cemetery.

  4. Willem Wouter Jacobus Johannes (21 May 1869 – 6 October 1946) - Highly prominent local Member of Parliament, interred at the Heidelberg Kloof Cemetery.

  5. Johanna Susanna Frederika (Later Gouws).

  6. Judith Cornelia Etresia (Later Grobler).

  7. Maria Magdalena (Later Muller).

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• Frederik Jacobus Bezuidenhout (Second Generation, 20 July 1851 – 14 February 1924): Inherited the two premium parent farms, Doornfontein and Braamfontein, which were subsequently proclaimed alongside Langlaagte and Elandsfontein to establish the city grid of Johannesburg. Prior to his relocation to the Heidelberg district, his private Johannesburg townhouse stood directly on the urban site currently occupied by the iconic Ponte Tower building. Just prior to the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Boer War, the family briefly operated an agricultural estate on a farm named Kafferspruit near Standerton. During the conflict, British columns executed a scorched-earth raid on the property, burning the entire farm to the ground and severely damaging the family's historic heirloom Bible, which was meticulously repaired after the war by a sympathetic English soldier. While his wife, Wilhelmina, and their children were forcibly rounded up and interned inside the Merebank Concentration Camp near Durban, Frederik maintained active service. In 1906, he consolidated his remaining assets to purchase the farm Boschfontein, constructing the De Rust mansion where he resided until his death in 1924. He was laid to rest as the foundational interment within the private De Rust Family Cemetery established on the estate grounds, and his formal last will and testament dictated a strict primogeniture clause, stipulating that the eldest son of each subsequent generation must inherit the physical ownership of "De Rust."

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THE THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATIONS

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• Frederik Jacobus Bezuidenhout (Third Generation, 8 November 1871 – 3 January 1944): Inherited the Victorian mansion under the strict terms of the family will. He married Anna Magdalena Gouws (24 July 1871 – 12 July 1942). Breaking with the estate cemetery traditions, both the third-generation patriarch and his wife were returned to the town center and interred within the historic civil plots at the Heidelberg Kloof Cemetery.

• Frederik Jacobus Bezuidenhout (Fourth Generation, 12 February 1899 – 3 October 1973): Managed the estate through the mid-20th century, marrying Maria Johanna Nolte (24 December 1898 – 30 May 1974). Following their passing, the traditional succession was restored, and both were permanently laid to rest inside the private De Rust Family Cemetery positioned on the mansion grounds.

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The fourth-generation marriage failed to produce a male heir, yielding an only daughter, Lydia Bezuidenhout. Lydia subsequently entered into marriage with Mr Minnaar, and she remains the contemporary legal owner and custodian of the historic "De Rust" estate.

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THE BIRTH OF THE NATIONAL PARTY AND PHILANTHROPIC SERVICES

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Beyond its immense architectural prestige, the De Rust mansion stands as a sacred monument within South African political history, universally revered as the symbolic birthplace of the National Party. Following intense ideological disagreements regarding the formal Unification of South Africa, Bezuidenhout resigned his membership from General Louis Botha's South African Party.

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Shortly thereafter, General J.B.M. Hertzog traveled to Heidelberg to seek counsel, meeting privately with Bezuidenhout inside the mansion's rosewood-paneled smoking room to draft the foundational manifestos and map out the formal establishment of a new political organization, which materialised as the National Party.

The very first clandestine organizational meetings of the emergent party were hosted directly inside the De Rust reception halls. Ultimately, despite his massive influence, Bezuidenhout declined to stand as a formal political candidate when national elections were declared, choosing to step back from the ballot box because he refused to contest the local Heidelberg district parliamentary seat, which was already securely held by his younger brother, Willem Bezuidenhout.

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Willem and Frederik Bezuidenhout operated as the primary, highly influential pillars of the local community. Utilizing the massive wealth generated from their inherited Johannesburg gold mining options, the brothers, working in close financial partnership with their brother-in-law, Cornelius Floris Johannes Meyer (17 February 1856 – 9 October 1916), completely funded the building construction of the independent Laer Volkskool campus in 1907.

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Frederik also stepped forward as the primary civic sponsor who financed the manufacturing and installation of the grand bronze clockwork mechanisms and the array of historic bells mounted inside the new masonry tower of the Dutch Reformed Klipkerk following its catastrophic structural collapse in 1909 - an advanced public utility that the original town church had entirely lacked prior to his donation. The historic mansion achieved formal legal protection during the 1980s, when it was officially declared a National Monument. Today, it has been sensitively integrated into the regional tourism sector, operating as a boutique guest house where modern travelers can reside within its preserved Victorian rooms.

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SOURCES AND CREDITS

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• Primary Historiography: Consolidated from the official architectural heritage directories, construction records, and blueprint registers curated by the Historical Homes of South Africa association and the digital archives of Artefacts.co.za.

• Family Lineage and Testaments: Derived from the verified family trees, direct probate records, and original wills of the first through fourth generations of the Bezuidenhout family.

• Archival Tracking: Supplemented by the political diaries of General J.B.M. Hertzog, the building logs of architect Carel Meischke, and the master installation indexes of the Heidelberg Heritage Association curated by Tony Burisch.

​Source: Heidelberg Heritage Association - Article Post (Click to visit website)

​Source: Heidelberg Heritage Association Facebook Page - General (Click to visit website)