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		Bovenplaats - Jan Smuts' Birthplace Riebeek West district, Western Cape GABRIËL FAGAN ARCHITECTS: Architect

Date: 1866 : 1984 Type: Homestead Status: Extant   Click to view map Coordinates: 33°19'22.96" S 18°50'57.98" E

See more photographs The house where Jan Christiaan (Christian) Smuts was born on 24 May 1870 appears to have been an outhouse on the family farm Bovenplaats which was converted at the time of his parents' marriage in 1866. In the early 1950s the farm was acquired by Pretoria Portland Cement and there is now an extensive quarry which reaches almost up to the cottage, which is now protected by a surrounding wall. In 1984 the building was restored by Gawie FAGAN. (Picton-Seymour 1989:74; Oberholster 1972:61-2) See also Smuts House in Irene, Gauteng References: Oberholster, JJ. 1972. The Historical Monuments of South Africa. Cape Town: Rembrandt Van Rijn Foundation for Culture at the request of the National Monuments Council. pg 61-62 Picton-Seymour, Désirée. 1989. Historical Buildings in South Africa. Cape Town: Struikhof Publishers. pg 74 Richardson, Deirdré. 2001. Historic Sites of South Africa. Cape Town: Struik Publishers. pg 136