Ladismith History

Ladismith’s Architectural Heritage

History about our town

Ladismith was established by the Dutch Reformed Church in 1851 on a portion of the farm “Ylands Valley”. The town was surveyed and laid out in 1852, but only after 10 years was it finally declared a town. Named after Lady Juana Smith, Spanish wife of the Governor of the Cape, Sir Harry Smith, the original “Ladysmith” was changed to Ladismith in 1879 to prevent confusion with a similarly named town in Natal.
The town is unique in the sense that it has its own individual building style. The so-called Ladismith style is a simplified Georgian design and dates from the 1830’s. Several other architectural styles, eg Neo-Gothic, Georgian, Victorian, Regency and rural (Karoo) style, Regency, Lithuanian can also be found. Several buildings have been declared National Monuments, e.g. the Otto Hager church where the Tourism Bureau is housed.

The Water Monument

On the Knuywagensdrift/Hoeko road a unique water seepage tunnel was built in 1910 (completed in 1912) to provide drinking water to the Ladismith community. The initial phase was about 86m, extended by an additional 66 m in 1944. Most of the original tunnel was built by hand although an antique crane was used to remove excess material from the site. Workmen excavated deep into the earth – the water level is between 4 and 4,8 m below the surface – to ensure that the tunnel was under the river bed. The tunnel runs diagonally across the river bed and was filled with river sand and stones. At the bottom is a canal collecting the naturally-filtered pure water, being conveyed to two concrete reservoirs through gravity and a pipeline. From here the water flows to a reservoir situated above the town, from where it is distributed throughout the town.

Victorian Style (1870’s – Early 1900’s)

A variety of Victorian building styles can be found in town – from the very plain to the opulent (e.g. Ostrich palace with its Flemish gable and ‘fish-tail turret, Albert Manor) – with high ceilings, large rooms, thick walls and usually a wide entrance hall. The woodwork was mostly Oregon pine and in some cases yellow wood floors, doors and window frames with inside or outside shutters. Most of the ceilings were topped with a reed-and-clay ‘fire ceiling’ which also acted as excellent insulation against the heat in summer.
The one-bay stoep-kamer houses all had verandas with ornate brookie-lace or simple cast iron. Some of the houses had holbol gables and octoganal quoined corner turrets.

Victorian style

Victorian style

Victorian style

Victorian style

Victorian style

Victorian style

Victorian style

Victorian style

Ladismith (simplified Georgian) (1880’s)

The typical Ladismith house, is flat-roofed with a low second storey pierced by round ventilator windows (‘Ladismith eyes’ as they have been aptly named locally) and sometimes with two stoepkamers on both sides of a veranda. All this is crowned with a bracketed cornice without parapet. Some houses have block quoining on the corners and round its openings, all-over rustication and rather ‘high-brow’ moundings over the openings.

Original Georgian

Other Ladismith styles

Ladismith style

Neo Gothic

Neo Gothic

Regency style

Edwardian style

Ladismith style

Neo Gothic

Neo Gothic

Rural style

Ladismith Town hall

Cape Dutch Revival

Ladismith style

Neo Gothic

Lithuanian style

Edwardian style

Art Deco Style