Johannesburg - One of the last few remaining examples of an art nouveau private residence, Cullinan House, in Upper Houghton, is up for sale.
This heritage home has an impressive past and is regarded as one of Joburg’s most valuable architectural treasures.
It is currently privately owned and has just been listed for sale by the Chas Everitt luxury portfolio division. It is expected to sell for around R10 million.
Chief executive Rory O’Hagan says the property has been fully restored.
“It is a wonderful reminder of the early history of Joburg when wealthy merchants, professionals and the Randlords, who controlled the gold mines, vied with each other to build the grandest houses in the most fashionable styles,” he says.
Upper Houghton was first started as a residential area by Barney Barnato’s Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company. Cullinan House was built in 1910 by Sir Thomas Cullinan of the Premier Mine and Cullinan Diamond fame, for his brother-in-law and business partner, Joseph Mitchell.
The house was designed by Robert Howden, who later became first president of the Institute of South African Architects.
Cullinan was a South African diamond magnate renowned for giving his name to the Cullinan Diamond – the largest diamond ever discovered. He was also the owner of the Premier Mine which was renamed the Cullinan Mine, from which the famous gem was extracted in 1905.
Cullinan arrived in Joburg in 1887 and worked as a bricklayer, but soon turned to prospecting. He later moved to Parktown which was an exclusive suburb for the emerging wealthy Randlords. It was there that he built “The View” for himself.
He discovered the Premier diamond fields in 1898. Although they were a distance from the existing diamond fields, he found a diamond on the surface on a farm and soon discovered a diamond-bearing pipe. He died in 1936 at the age of 74.
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THE STAR