Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.	Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon		Seaforth - Kilcreen - Mare Video St James, Western Cape PERRY and LIGHTFOOT: Architect 1942 LIGHTFOOT, TWENTYMAN-JONES and KENT: Architect 1952

Date: pre 1865 : 1877 : 1920 : 1952 Client: William Mortimer Farmer | Sophia Walker | Marjorie Moxon Type: Homestead Status: Extant Street: 96 Main Rd   Click to view large map Coordinates: 34°07'15.15" S 18°27'20.15" E Alt: 9m

Complex ownership: Once part of whaler JH Muller's estate. Sold to Johan Adriaan Louw in 1842. Louw sold the property to Johannes W. Stukeris in 1851 who then divided it into two smaller lots. Stukeris' insolvent estate sold Lot A in 1865 to Rice Daniel Jones, which now included a small lot with cottage and was described as Seaforth. Jones' estate sold this lot to William Brading, a wealthy Wynberg shopkeeper, in 1869. Brading sold the property to William Mortimer Farmer who demolished the old house and cottage and built a 4-bedroomed thatched roof home, retaining the name Seaforth. The house was then sold to Servaas van Breda in 1888 and Louisa Trollip in 1897 until it was bought by prominent department store owner William Fletcher in 1902. Mary Emerson Armour bought the property in 1916. She accommodated boy boarders from Star of the Sea Convent from 1917 to 1920. In June 1920 she added a large front verandah to the home. She sold the home in 1921 to Bridget O'Callaghan (nee Kilkerry). Bridget changed the name Seaforth to Kilcreen, presumably the place of her birth in Ireland. Her daughters ran Kilcreen as a Residential Hotel between 1935 and 1937. In 1939 Kilcreen was gutted by a fire. The daughters sold the property, the house having been demolished, to Sophia Walker of Pretoria. Sophia Walker employed Perry and Lightfoot to design a new double-storey home on the site (closer to the Main Road). The home, then called Mare Video, was ready for occupation by early 1942. In January 1944 Sophia sold the home to Marjorie Moxon of the Meikles family in Rhodesia [Zimbabwe]. Marjorie Moxon did further additions in 1952 (Architects: Lightfoot, Twentyman Jones and Kent). Thereafter subsequent owners were Arthur Rushton-Brown (1959), Dawn Elizabeth Henderson (1969), and Keith Macfarlane (1976) who renamed the house Seaforth thereby restoring the original historical name of the mid-1850s. Now named St James Seaforth, a luxury guesthouse. Summary by Paul v d Merwe from: St James, Rovos Rail's Elegant Guesthouses, by Michael Walker.