GALLERY: Heritage blue plaques installed in Joburg

According to the foundation, blue plaques in Johannesburg have become a heritage meme to honour people, places, and recall events.

October 1, 2020

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Johannesburg Heritage Foundation used Heritage Day eve and day to install blue plaques.
According to a member of the foundation, Colin Wasserfall, the team embarked on the installations on 23 and 24 September.
The foundation has a successful blue plaque programme, and blue plaques are awarded for a range of notable achievements, remote and recent history, fine architecture, and more. According to the foundation, blue plaques in Johannesburg have become a heritage meme to honour people, places, and recall events.

House Laing was among the first built in Lower Houghton in 1927. Photo: Supplied

On the newly installed Noordhoek (double-story gable house) blue plaque in Lower Houghton, it is inscribed: ‘Stockbroker and influential gold commentator Maurice Lipschitz commissioned John Albert Hoogterp to design Noordhoek in 1938. Hoogterp had established his career working with Baker on the Union Buildings and proceeded to numerous civic projects in then Northern Rhodesia and Kenya.

The Normandie blue plaque in Lower Houghton. Photo: Supplied

The enormous scale of the house reflects its owners’ wealth and aspirations. It was designed in the fashionable style of the time, Cape Dutch Revival and set on a double Houghton acre. Lipschitz would go on to own Lenin, one of SA’s most successful racehorses.’

Legendary Jazz musician Hugh Masekela’s residence is adorned with a blue plaque. Photo: Supplied

On the Hugh Masekela plaque in Riviera it is inscribed: ‘Hugh Ramapolo Masekela, distinguished trumpeter, flugelhornist, singer, composer and advocate for African Heritage lived here. In three decades of exile, his music became a symbol of the country’s anti-apartheid movement. He pioneered his unique South African influenced style of jazz and fused it with music from across the African continent and diaspora. His hits include Grazing in the grass (1968), Bring him back home (1987) and Stimela (1974).’

Additional blue plaques installed include:

House Laing – Lower Houghton

House Suzman – Lower Houghton

Foxwood – Houghton

Normandie – Lower Houghton

SHC – Observatory

ChrisvWyk – Riverlea

Vesta Smith – Noordgesig

P Q Vundla – Soweto.