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		Gereformeerde Kerk Lichtenburg, North West Pieter Simon DYKSTRA: Architect

Date: 1945 Type: Gereformeerde Kerk - Church Status: Extant

The district Hartsrivier was founded in 1882 by the Reformed Church of Lichtenburg and consisted of the farms Uitschot, Klippan, Tweebosch and De Klipdrif. Back then communion was held in the school at De Klipdrif. Box seating was arranged along the stoep and the wood planks placed across them, and in the classrooms school benches were temporarily removed at the time of such events and each congregant had to bring his or her own chair. The preacher then conducted his service in the big classroom. In 1919 GK Lichtenburg bought 48 morgen [41.12 Ha] of De Klipdrif and exactly a century after Predident Paul Kruger's birth on 10 October 1825, established Sannieshof van Lichtenburg with a donation of the ground as well as £37.6.3 that a congregant, Gert Coetzee, had saved in his tin trunk. Immediately the young congregation started making plans for church construction. Quotes were received from C Sickman for an 24m by 9m building and a 3m by 3m consistory. The estimated cost for a corrugated iron clad building was £250, £546 for a timber building and £606 for one of bricks. The Church Council decided on the corrugated iron clad building with stone columns and a stone wall set inside against the iron. This first church was officially commissioned on 9 April 1926. It had a ground floor covered with Rubbertex [a patent rubberised flooring]. Also, there were no benches here so each member still had to bring his or her own chair for worship. In this time it was customary that every elder or deacon's spouses sat directly behind him. In 1937 the congregation decided to erect a new church building. The Reformed architect Pieter DYKSTRA was hired in January 1944. Because of the restrictions in place during the Second World War a building permit could only be obtained in 1945. The building contractor as JH Stronkhorst. Prof JD du Toit (Totius) laid the foundation stone on 6 April 1946 and two months later the old building of corrugated iron was demolished. Rev JV Coetzee describes this church in the Almanac of the GKSA for the year 1948 as "one of the most appealing church buildings in West Transvaal”. (Translated from text posted on Artefacts FB page by Morné van Rooyen, October 2026)