Heritage trail: A place of lasting peace

11 January 2017 - 10:58 By Andrew Unsworth
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Melrose House in Pretoria is where the Treaty of Vereeniging, ending the Second Anglo-Boer War, was signed on May 31 1902.

HOUSE RULES: Melrose House, home of the final Anglo-Boer peace treaty
HOUSE RULES: Melrose House, home of the final Anglo-Boer peace treaty
Image: SUPPLIED

It was built in 1886 by Pretoria businessman George Jesse Heys (1853-1939), and designed by British architect WT Vale with gables and turrets and a grand wooden staircase. It was completed in 1887. Heys named it Melrose House, after the ruins of Melrose Abbey in Scotland.

ZAR President Paul Kruger and his second wife Gezina were close friends of the Heys, which made them apprehensive when the British captured Pretoria in June 1900 during the Anglo-Boer War.

Heys offered the use of the house (or the British requisitioned it), and Lord Roberts, Commander of the British forces, moved in, making it the British military HQ. Roberts occupied the house until he handed over command to Lord Kitchener on November 29 1900, who took up residence.

During April and May 1902 Melrose House hosted the first negotiations between the Boer republics and the British. After more negotiations in Vereeniging the final peace treaty was rushed to Pretoria and signed on the dining table on May 31.

Lord Lyttelton took over as British commander the next month. When he moved into Melrose House he found it ''in a very disorderly condition".

Lyttelton and his wife moved out to the new Roberts Heights (later Voortrekkerhoogte and now Thaba Tshwane) in early 1903, and the Heys family finally got their home back.

The house was bought by the Pretoria city council in 1968 and opened as a museum in the 1970s.

It's well preserved, and most of the wallpaper has been accurately reproduced. The house is elaborately decorated in Victorian/Edwardian style, almost oppressive to modern eyes. There are two magnificent stained-glass windows, one in the billiards room, the other in the stairwell which houses a fine wooden staircase. The historic dining table is still there, the places of delegates marked, but as with the other rooms you can only view from the door.

In 1990 a grenade was thrown into the drawing room by the right-wing Boerevolkstaat during a white backlash against then-President FW de Klerk's reforms. Piet "Skiet" Rudolph claimed responsibility for the attack. The extensive damage has been fully restored.

  • 275 Jeff Masemola Street (entrance at 280 Scheiding Street), Pretoria, 012-322-0420
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