HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS

INTRODUCTION: STATUTORY CONTEXT “This landscape is, in a sense, now dormant. It has come from a state of incredible botanical diversity. It was first transformed by Tokai / Porter Estate is an area of high cultural heritage significance: Tokai is considered to be of national heritage significance (Grade 1) by SAHRA, within the acclaimed Constantia Winelands Cultural Landscape, and linking to National Park (also contemplated as a Grade 1 site), but the formal gazetting and protection is not in place. nomadic pastoralists, later by nineteenth century farmers and their slaves, and over a century ago by the government with their Tokai Manor House and part of its historical Werf, and the Arboretum, were gazetted as National Monuments in 1961 and 1985 respectively. In terms of the National Heritage resources Act (No 25 of 1999) they are forestry and reformatory farm.” now classified as Provincial Heritage Sites, and formally protected in terms of Section 27 of the NHRA; some of the other houses, offices, agricultural outbuildings within the precinct are over 60 years old and thus 2 have general protection in terms of Section 34. As the site is in excess of 5000 m and proposed interventions may change may change the character of the area, it is possible that a Heritage Impact Assessment “The challenge is to determine how further transformations are will be required in terms of Section 38 of the NHRA. to take place without entirely obliterating the marks of the past.” Aikman, Malan & Winter, 2001. OUTLINE HISTORY OF TOKAI (AND PORTER ESTATE) PRELIMINARY STATEMENT OF CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE “The evolving cultural landscape of Porter Estate” Predominantly derived from Harris 1997 and Aikman Malan Winter 2001.

Preamble: Overall Context

Pre-1652 Prehistorical and Pre-Colonial Period “The inherited cultural landscape of Porter Estate has escalated from gradual change over Early hunter-gatherers utilised the land’s natural resources, but left very little millennia towards much more rapid change over the last three hundred years and particularly impact on landscape. There are no known prehistorical archaeological sites over the last century. Each period left its mark in the form of paths, roads, planting patterns, within the precinct. Khoikhoi nomadic pastoralists utilised the Peninsula over drainage and irrigation furrows and structures ranging from terracing to walls to dams and some 2000 years, tending their flocks of cattle and sheep, and utilising fire to buildings. extend pastures, modify landscape. “The overall landscape is a complex composite of natural, cultivated and built landscape elements. It is a cultural landscape rather than a natural landscape; a landscape transformed by thousands of years of settlement history. … 1652 17th& 18thCentury: Dutch Colonial Period – Dutch East India Company (VOC) Plan of Porter Estate, 1947 (Aikman et al) In 1652 the Dutch East India Company/ VOC established a refreshment station “It also has narrative qualities, possessing a rich layering of physical evidence spanning in Table Valley. Constantia established by Governor Simon van der Stel by thousands of years of human occupation and more than 200 years of permanent settlement. … 1694, began planting oaks widely. This area, called “Buffelskraal”, was used as a cattle station by the VOC: the grazing was excellent. “It possesses a number of distinctive and inter-related precincts, which serve to clearly demonstrate or are strongly associated with its various historical roles and uses as a place for indigenous hunter-gatherers, grazing ground for herders, colonial cattle grazing station, colonial farm, forestry station and reformatory. Jan. 1792 Dutch Colonial Period – Private Ownership 6 Jan 1792: first freehold grant to Johan Andreas Rauch, retired VOC official. “Within each of these precincts are groupings of buildings, patterns of planting, routes and The Freehold Grant describes it as “aan de Buffelskraal”, “situated under the irrigation systems and collections of objects which have intrinsic historical, social, aesthetic and so-called Prinskasteel” (i.e. corruption of Prinseskasteel, Elephant’s Eye cave scientific significance and also contextual significance in terms of their contribution to an high on ‘reputed to have been stronghold of a Hottentot understanding and appreciation of the inherited landscape qualities of Porter Estate’s history and Chiefteness’ (Mauve) associated memory.” (Aikman Malan Winter 2001: 32)

Mar. 1792 14 March 1792: transferred to Andreas Georg Hendrik Teubes (after 3 months). Teubes built the fine house, carefully sited on the ridge between the Prinskasteel Historical Significance and Flagstaff streams, & wine cellar, slave quarters, stables & kraals, and planted Aerial View of Core Precinct 1883 (Harris) 70 000 vines. Buffelskraal/ Tokai/ Porter Estate have had an exceptionally rich, varied and layered developmental history, considerably different to its neighbouring estates, throughout the Dutch and English colonial periods and the 20th Century. 1799 19 November 1799: transferred to Jan Frederick Herwig The impulses that have driven periods of major development or change are associated with Referred to as Tokay for the 1st time (area in Hungary: sweet aromatic wine highly significant people: the Architect/ Engineer/ Surveyor LM Thibault who reputedly designed famous in 18th C) the exceptionally fine Manor House; The Bequest of Irish Liberal William Porter purchased the property for purposes of social reform and upliftment, and the establishment of the Porter Reformatory; Joseph Storr-Lister effectively established commercial forestry in from Tokai, which is also home of the first School of Forestry. 1800 British Colonial Period – Private Ownership th 1 November 1800: property transferred to Johan Caspar Loos. Loos died in Changes through the late 20 C have witnessed a gradual diffusion of reforming impulses, institutional processes and forestry activities, and the introduction or imposition of differing 1802, after selling Tokai. Manor House Rear Terraces, Early 20th Century (Elliott2653) environmental values.

1802 1 June 1802: Tokai was transferred to Petrus Michiel Eksteen Eksteen obtained substantial additional land grants; bankrupt January Social 1849, died soon after. Public sale of properties.

The transformations of the Tokai landscape, and development of buildings and structures, may have involved Khoisan herdsmen; has encompassed considerable use of slave labour, later the 1851 2 June 1851: Transferred to relatives Sebastian Valentyn Eksteen & use of convict labour, and extensive inputs of the reformatory boys. Jacob Pieter Eksteen, who owned it until 1883. The Eksteens developed Tokai and Porter Reformatory have considerable significance for past pupils and teachers. and further transformed the landscape through much of the 19th Century. Tokai has evolved into a major metropolitan hub of recreation, for walkers, hikers, mountain- bikers, horse-riders etc, and is in the process of transformation to and development as the “Gateway to Table Mountain National Park”. Towards the end of the 19th Century many farmers in the Cape were in a state of economic ruin due to the epidemic vine disease phylloxera, which decimated the productive vineyards, as well as severe drought, labour difficulties, the removal of preferential wine exports, and widespread Environmental, Ecological economic depression. Many farms were sold or subdivided; the Cape Colonial Government bought up some. Tokai 1895 (SA Views, SA Library) The core Tokai settlement is superbly located at the base of the easterly-facing steeper slopes of the Constantiaberg, on a slight promontory between two perennial streams. The imposing formal composition of the homestead complex is enhanced by the axial approach along the tree-lined 1883 British Colonial Period – Forestry and Philanthropy avenue; the axis aligns on the peak of the towering Constantiaberg. Tokai Estate was one of the first farms procured by the Cape Government in 1883, utilising funds from the William Porter bequest. William Porter, an Irish The entire Tokai precinct has rich and varied environmental qualities and opportunities, from the liberal, had a distinguished career as Attorney General of the Cape Colony low flatlands through the core historical settlement and the immense variety of trees, forests, 1839 to 1865. Porter drew up his Will in 1878, bequeathing £20 000 for plantations and arboretum experiences. “establishment and maintenance of reformatories for young offenders sentenced by the Colonial Courts”. The Tokai precinct has high ecological bio-diversity significance in terms of the re-creation of an ecological corridor being developed to link the Constantiaberg Mountains to the lowlands via the rehabilitation of a corridor or bands of endemic vegetation along the Prinskasteel River. The precinct includes areas of “endangered” South Peninsula Granite and Tokai was initially bought for the establishment of a “Lunatic Asylum” i.e. “critically endangered” . psychiatric hospital, proposed to house the patients transferred from . Following strong objections from neighbouring farmers, the plan was discarded. Scientific and Technological

Between 1883 and 1905 Tokai was the centre of forestry experimentation The extensive silvicultural experimentation, the establishment of the first major commercial and development. plantations in South Africa and location of the first School of Forestry at Tokai are of high scientific significance. The Arboretum is botanically world-renowned for its wide range of different tree species, which has high scientific and educational value. 1875 Joseph Storr Lister, appointed in 1875 as Superintendent of Plantations, realised the need for plantations of exotics. He commenced forestry operations at Tokai in 1883, amongst the first commercial plantations in the country. Between 1885 and 1888 he and wife Georgina were resident at Architectural, Aesthetic Tokai homestead. A large number of exotic species were planted behind the homestead, forming the nucleus of the Arboretum. The nursery provided over 200 000 plants annually by the end of the 19th C, for afforestation work and for The recognised high architectural significance of Tokai Manor House, attributed to LM Thibault, public sale. Convict labour was used for the forestry work, propagating includes the approach avenue, the forecourt and flanking Outbuildings, the werf walls, slave bell- seedlings, damming of streams, digging irrigation furrows etc. More roads built, tower and the axial rear stairs, pathway and terraced gardens. the most significant being Tokai Road, linking the forest station to the railway It is a superb example and expression of a formally conceived, symmetrical and ordered Cape line and Main Road. “Convict Outstation” – housed in the outbuildings, with a Dutch homestead set within a majestic landscape setting. number of additions, later referred to as “Ou Orpen Huis” after Captain Harry Orpen, who had been in charge. Arrival Axis and Manor House, Late 19th Century (SANParks) The other buildings within the precinct are of lower, neutral or in some cases negative/ intrusive aesthetic value, within the beautiful sylvan setting. The late 19th / early 20th C forestry buildings including the TMNP Ranger’s Residence, the Stone Cottage and the Fire Stand-by House are contributory within their immediate precincts and to the broader context.

1889 In 1889 the Cape Colonial Govt transferred the Porter Reformatory from Manor House Stoep, Early 20th Century (CA E 2371) Valkenberg Estate to Tokai. The boys were initially housed in the werf Archaeological outbuildings, and involved in farm work and crafts. In 1890 a new complex to house the reformatory was built on a prominent site to the north. Its layout and The archaeological significance of the TMPP is largely undetermined; although the core historical design was typical of British colonial military installations: long verandas and werf precinct (and the sites of the two collapsed outbuildings) “is potentially a rich archaeological interlocking courtyards, barracks and messes. The Manor House became the site of colonial period archaeology.” (Aikman et al 2001: 37). Superintendent’s residence in 1892.

RECOMMENDED GRADINGS : DRAFT HERITAGE INDICATORS 1898 In 1898 Tokai Estate was surveyed & reconfigured: 136 morgen were reserved for Porter School educational purposes; 303 morgen declared ‘demarcated forest’, although the separate allocations for educational and forestry purposes Refer to the draft Map of Heritage Resources, which indicates the recommended gradings for the were not strictly adhered to. individual buildings, and the approximate extent of associated sub-precincts.

Grade 1 The entire Porter Estate is an area of high cultural heritage significance: Tokai is considered to be of national heritage significance (Grade 1) by SAHRA, within the acclaimed Constantia Winelands Cultural 1900 20thCentury: Institutional Period – Reformatory and Forestry Landscape, and linking to Table Mountain National Park (also contemplated as a Grade 1 site), but the Significant alterations to the landscape continued throughout the 20th formal gazetting and protection is not in place. century. Retain, regain and interpret evidence and elements of all of the meaningful periods and layers of history from pre-colonial times through Cattle Station, Wine Estate, Forestry nursery, experimentation, education and plantations, Convict Station, Porter Reformatory to the contemporary recreational and environmental activities. Maintain and enhance the significances of the core Tokai Manor House Werf within its overall cultural 1906 The first School of Forestry was established at Tokai by 1906. landscape context, recognising its linkages to different areas, functions and interventions over time including grazing lands, vineyards, plantations and arboretum, orchards, vegetable gardens and “water- leidings”, as well as significant historical routes, avenues, axes and settings. Manor House Forecourt, Late 19th Century (CA G835) Balance the bio-diversity “imperatives” with the meaningful retention of cultural landscapes! Develop an overall conservation and development framework that integrates the different elements and 1912 In 1912 Tokai School for Forest Apprentices opened with 8 students. layers in a holistic manner, without overemphasising new patterns or destroying/ sanitising significant After 20 years the school moved to George, became Saasveld College for historical fabric. Foresters. Forestry operations continued at Tokai throughout the 20th Century. Grade 2 Tokai Manor House (National Monument 1961), werf and core historical Outbuildings, axial approach avenue and rear terraced gardens. Arboretum (National Monument 1985) Conserve; Remedial action to enhance significance; Minimal intervention; and Interpretation. Recent Period 1961 Tokai Manor House was declared a National Monument in 1961. Grade 3A

Orpen House (north of the c1795 “cellar/ slave quarters” outbuilding)

Conserve; Remedial action to enhance significance; Retain historical fabric (interior and exterior of

building); and Minimal intervention.

1985 Arboretum was declared a National Monument in 1985. Grade 3B TMNP Section Ranger’s Residence Conserve; Retain and enhance significance; and Retain historical fabric (predominantly building At Porter Reformatory, vegetable growing and animal husbandry exterior). continued until about 1980. Thereafter, academic & technical education was the focus for the boys. The land lay fallow; invasive alien vegetation Grade 3C soon took hold. Orpen Cottage Stone Cottage Wood Owl Cottage Stand-By House 2000 The Porter Reformatory was formally closed in 2000. Constantia School Stables for Boys closed in 2001. Conserve wherever possible; Retain historical fabric wherever possible (exterior only); Conserve and enhance contribution to overall character and streetscape; and Demolition could only be considered if appropriate adaptive reuses cannot be established.

The Chrysalis Academy was established early in the 21st Century Buildings over 60 years (ungraded) at the Porter campus. Depot (Paff) House Stores & Workshops Forester’s Cottages (b & c) Bosdorp Workers’ Cottages Cape Research Centre (but remodelled c2008) Tokai Façade (CA AG 8492) SG Map 1902 (Aikman et al) Demolition could be considered.

1902, SG Plan (Harris, Colours TT) Heritage Resources Plan