Tony Burisch of the Heidelberg Heritage Association awarded the latest heritage blue plaque to André Kilian at 7 Pretorius Street, Heidelberg on March 17.
The house was built in the 1920s. The bricks used to build the house came from the Vereeniging Brick and Tile Company.
The company was established by Sammy Marks, a well-known businessman in the Transvaal. The steel windows and metal-pressed ceilings were made by Scaw Metals. The corrugated iron and roof came from Iscor, Vanderbijlpark.
Iscor was also established by Marks. The Oregon pine floors were imported from Oregon in the USA.
Marks was born in Lithuania and moved to South Africa in 1868 at age 24. He moved to Pretoria in 1881 and was a close friend of former President Paul Kruger.
In the beginning, Marks spent his time peddling jewellery before teaming up with his cousin, Isaac Lewis, to start a business selling supplies to miners and diggers in South Africa’s quickly growing mining towns.
The business was a great success, and the duo expanded their interests and opened a distillery, canning factory, glass factory, brick and tile works, maize mill and steelworks.
They were also involved in mining and made a great fortune in the coal mines that lined the banks of the Vaal River.
Marks pioneered the use of steam tractors and progressive farming implements.
He also sponsored the establishment of flour mills and brick and tile works in Vereeniging.
For many years, Marks had planned iron and steelworks in the Transvaal region and visited Britain to inspect the installations there.
When he landed a contract with the government in 1911 for smelting large quantities of scrap metal, he founded the Union Steel Corporation, or Iscor, in 1912.
The current owner is the great-grandson of Petrus Johannes Justus Daniel Kilian (1850-1941), a well-known Heidelberger who fought in both Anglo-Boer Wars.
Kilian has been staying in the house since 2001.
It is understood the daughter of another well-known Heidelberger, Mr TA Dönges, also once lived in the house.
