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		Steenberg Tokai, Cape Town, Western Cape Hubert Luscombe ROBERTS: Architect reconstruction

Date: c1740 : pre-1940 Type: Homestead Style: Cape Dutch Status: Extant   Click to view map Coordinates: 34°04'17.05" S 18°25'31.05" E Alt: 63m

Formerly Zwaanswyk. The present house was perhaps built by the son of Frederik Russouw, to whom the property was transferred in 1695, as early as c1740. The front-gable, holbol without surface decorations and only a small keystone, on style can be dated to c1765 (a window pane is dated 1763), and was therefore probably added at the time of the first rethatching by the third Russouw. The date on the gable relates to the land grant, not to the gable. It is the only holbol front-gable surviving in the Peninsula. Some alterations may date from the second rethatching, c1800, when Daniel Russouw owned the place. (Fransen 2004:152) Sometime prior to 1940 there was some reconstruction done by HL ROBERTS. (SA Archt Oct 1940:252-3, 264) The homestead was turned into a hotel in 1990. See Steenberg website. 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 and articles that reference Steenberg Dane, Philippa & Wallace, Sydney-Anne. 1981. The Great houses of Constantia. Cape Town: Don Nelson. pg 15-22; 23-27 Fransen, Hans. 2004. The old buildings of the Cape. A survey of extant architecture from before c1910 in the area of Cape Town - Calvinia - Colesberg - Uitenhage. Johannesburg & Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers. pg 154 Hoefsloot, Ted (illustrations) & Pama, Cor (text). 1980. Cape Wine Homesteads. Johannesburg: AD Donker. pg 106, 107 ill