 Contact Artefacts | MenuHomeUpfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon | Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk William Henry KÖHLER: Architect Carl Otto HAGER: Architect George WALLIS: Architect Supervisor |  | ||||||
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Click to view map Coordinates: | The original building, which Radford (1979:191) describes as 'the most ambitious piece of church building undertaken in the Western Cape in the late 1850's ... a little too ambitious', was started in 1857 and finished in 1879, thus taking 22 years to complete. Radford points out that while Wallis supplied the plans it is probable that these were by W KÖHLER. On 17 September 1860 the Building Committee of the Dutch Reformed Church in Oudtshoorn accepted the design plans of George WALLIS (Snr.) for the erection of the new sandstone church in the neo-Gothic style. Mr Joseph BLAKE was appointed Clerk of Works and John Thomas COOPER as foreman of the stonemasons. The corner-stone was laid in 1861. Work at the Church was abandoned on 5 October 1863 consequent to an argument between the Building Committee and the Architect. In 1865 the work at the church was resumed under the supervision of John T. COOPER. In December 1865, work came to a halt due to lack of finances as Oudtshoorn district was in the grip of a severe drought. In 1875 the new Building Committee decided to obtain the services of master builder and architect Otto HAGER of Cape Town. A proposal by John COOPER to the Building Committee in September 1876 to let five stonemasons and a sawyer come from England to speed up the work was accepted. The local sandstone was of such high quality that even the decorative flower designs could be carved out of it. (Municipal Grounds-Cango Cave road.) For his good services he received a formal note of thanks from the Building Committee at the inauguration of the Church on 7 June 1879. (Ferreira 1982:30) All truncated references not fully cited below are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon. Books that reference Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk
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