Page 188 - Bulletin 19 2015

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The house was designed for entertaining (the original plans show it a distinctive pink) and
one can well imagine the parties that took place here, especially during the war years with a

constant flow of officers and dignitaries passing through Simon’s Town. It had only two

bedrooms (on the upper floor) and an enormous study. On the ground floor was a huge dining
room with inter-leading drawing room. There were the usual pantries and kitchen and two

servants’ bedrooms. In 1938 special permission was given for a fuel store to be on the
premises – this was for the central heating – an unusual feature in Cape Town. The rear of the

house facing on to Boyes Drive was almost as splendid as the front. (Figs. 3.77 & 3.78.)

It was completed in July 1939 by builders A B Reid at a cost of £5,100. Architecturally the
house is said to be Southern Plantation style. The name is said to come from ‘petra’ – the

Latin for ‘rock’ and ‘Va’ the abbreviation for the state of Virginia. Thus for Josephine the
house, or possibly she, was the rock of Virginia.

By the time the house was complete her husband was a Rear-Admiral and the couple lived

here until 1946. Although only 49 years old Josephine was ailing. Petrava was sold on 29
May 1946 and the couple moved to Marine Villa, Main Road, Kalk Bay. Josephine died at

Joubert Park Private Hospital on 20 September, four months after selling the house. Her
estate papers confirm she was a wealthy woman and her investments totalled £49,000 of

which her husband inherited £39,000. The balance was left to her family in Virginia. Her

husband John Harry Kay Clegg died at the Memorial Hospital, Savannah, Georgia on 2 June
1962.

Frances Vivian Mary Carleton-Jones was the next, somewhat exotic, owner of Petrava. She
bought the property as a holiday home from Josephine Clegg in 1946 and owned it for four

years before selling in 1950. Her maiden name was Mavrogordatos and she was born on

Cyprus in about 1890. Her 1938 SA Women’s Who’s Who entry shows that she came to
South Africa with her parents in 1908 and after schooling went to a Swiss finishing school. In

1938 she belonged to all the right clubs in Johannesburg and had a special interest in the
SPCA.