Penryn, a local guest house on the corner of Boundary Road and Union Street, is a gracious double-storey Victorian house that used to belong to Doctor Alval James Abraham, Dundee’s district surgeon.
He combined his living space with his surgery (one on each floor) and, complete with beautiful garden, the building is still one of Dundee’s finest. Born in Natal in 1849, his father, Andrew Abraham, was a missionary at Mapumulo. He married Minnie Sarah Lake Hyam in Dundee on August 13, 1884, in Dundee.
They had six children. Dr Abraham started his practice in Dundee in 1884. He was also a prominent landowner, with some 6000 acres all over Natal. During the Boer War, he was appointed district surgeon at Nongoma.
The ‘Natal Almanac of 1900’ lists him as the owner of ‘James Abraham Jewellers and Watchmakers’ in Victoria Street.
Then he was president of the Dundee Rifle Association (January 1902) and principal medical officer of the new Dundee Hospital (1903). Elected to the Town Council after two years on the Local Board, he was mayor of Dundee in 1909-10.
He was a member of the Biggarsberg Unity Lodge from 1886. He was a good linguist, speaking Dutch and Zulu fluently, and was well-known as a raconteur and chain smoker. James Abraham died in 1916. The house was later home to the much-loved Dr Lloyd.
More recently, Tony and Jean MacRitchie lived there, maintaining the home’s gracious reputation and opening it up as a B&B. Carol Cox, who now lives at Penryn, has also run the home as a B&B and for now is enjoying the spring rain that has transformed the garden. Penryn is in for another change later this year when the Bester family will take over its running and continue to ensure that the home’s reputation is kept intact.
