Page 122 - Bulletin 17 2013

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square roods (just over 3,5 acres) in central Kalk Bay in 1824. It is hard to understand why this

relative newcomer should have been given this land. His earlier letter may have had some
bearing when he wrote an unctuous memorial to the Governor “.. with that liberality and

compassion for misfortune which memorialist has been taught to believe is characteristic of the
British Nation…” In fact the transfer was found to be invalid because he did not have a burgher

certificate and this had to be rectified post the transfer.

Oxholm’s life seems to have been full of difficulties. He married Barbara Aletta Hurter of

Simon’s Town but by 1833 was insolvent and his Kalk Bay land was sold by public auction. In
1833 Huibrecht Smit bought the strip on the north side of the unmade Belmont Road for £19 7s

6d, adding it to the land her husband had bought from Verwey. Oxholm remained in his lowly

position with the Cape Government until he died in Port Elizabeth virtually penniless aged 60.

Development of Die Dam

For the next 25 years, until the 1860s, Kalk Bay remained a backwater and Deeds Office records
show very few properties changing hands in Die Dam. It was of course a well-established

whaling and fishing centre, though whaling petered out in the 1860s. Its healthy climate was

well-known but it remained a quiet place until the arrival of the railway in 1883. Even in the
1890s Kalk Bay as a whole was a thinly settled area. (Figs. 3.5 & 3.6.) The 1891 census shows a

total Kalk Bay – Muizenberg population of only 1,456, but by the 1904 census this had more
than doubled to 3,607. A 1902 map shows that the three most densely settled areas of Kalk Bay

were Die Land, Die Middedorp, and Die Dam extending through to Norman Road. (Figs. 3.7 &

3.8.) The 1902 map shows Die Dam having 34 numbered erven, as well as others un-numbered,
and more than 30 buildings. The presence of what might loosely be called ‘social centres’ is

evident here, for example the Mosque, the DR Church & Parsonage, Washhouse, and Main Road
businesses.

The rest of the paper examines the families, buildings and history of Die Dam on a street-by-
street basis.