Page 150 - Bulletin 20 2016
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dated in Daintree while three lady students were later housed at Roxton where they were
companions to Jane Marsh. The number of students steadily increased and by 1949 were 35.
With this steady increase a prefabricated building housing a dining-room, kitchen and
accommodation for new students was proposed by architect Nic. Mansveldt, but it was
refused building permission by the City Council. This resulted in the building of Marsh in
1955 which was a complete new double-storey block for the teaching staff, with flats and
student-room accommodation (architect Nic. Mansveldt). The builder was P. V. Twine of
Plumstead who had previously, at the end of 1951, enlarged Roxton, which became the
Educational and Administrative Centre of the Bible Institute after Jane’s death.
More buildings followed as the Bible Institute grew. These included:
• Douglas, a single-storey men’s residence.
• Daintree, destroyed by fire December 1987, and rebuilt as a three-storey women’s
residence, with two flats, (architect Derek Tomlin).
• Kingon (1970) a double-storey building housing a kitchen, a dining-room, a two-bedroom
flat and a single-bedroom flatlet and linked to Marsh (architect Peter Pelser).
• Marsh: the original double-storey building of 1955, converted into offices, flats and
additional men’s accommodation. (architect Peter Pelser).
• Lecturers and their families were accommodated in The Cottage (originally Marsh’s
chauffeur’s residence), altered and upgraded in 1951/55 and 2006.
• Keswick at the north-end of the Institute was a double-storey building and was originally
the home of the Rev. Vernon de Smidt, (1880 - 1973), who was one of the founding
teachers at the Bible Institute in 1923. He later became the Rector of the Holy Trinity
Church Kalk Bay (1934-1956). He donated Keswick to the Bible Institute on his death per
his Will of July 1973, and today the building is the home of the Vice-Principal of the
Bible Institute and his family.
• The west extension of Roxton (known as the New Library) was financed by a donation
from Twin Oaks, a Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Illinois, USA. It is a double-storey
building with a new library (which forms part of the old library) on the ground floor,
above which is a lecture-room with the appropriate sloped seating. The architects for this
extension, which was completed in 1985, were Messrs Pieter Pelser and Norman Calitz.
The new library consists of a reading room, a study area and a “short loan” section. The
library holds over 20,000 books, subscribes to over seventy periodicals, and has a large
tape collection. It was fully computerised in 1993.
The Bible Institute has thus grown, not only in buildings but also in the number of students
which, as of 2014, comprises: thirty-five full-time students, ten part-time students and