Springs is becoming a town without character because we don’t preserve our old buildings.
This is the belief of Pouli de Roland-Phillips, who grew up in Springs, who is pleading with any developer and owner of a building in Springs not to change the facades and feel of our town’s buildings.
“Keep the old feel and create character in our town,” she says.
She feels the change of the character in these buildings is very sad and has taken away the historical value of our town.
Many of the original houses in the Springs central business district are more than 60 years old, but many of these houses and buildings have been completely demolished, or changed and “modernized”, robbing Springs of its original character.
Pouli says Springs, on top of this, has a huge collection of art deco houses and buildings that are going to rack and ruin.
“This is a pity and a shame on the owners,” she says.
These buildings and dwellings, according to Pouli, have been built by Jewish and other business men during the 1920s and early 1930s.
The original owners are all dead and gone and it seems as if some of their heirs don’t care about these buildings’ future.
The Addie did ask the Ekurhuleni metro about their initiatives to preserve the character of Springs, but had received nothing at the time of going to press.
