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The shop was not demolished as part of the Flats project. The Wolfsohn family had lived

upstairs and the shop provided a valuable service to the community. It stood for many years
before being demolished. After that the site stood vacant for many years before being

developed as a double storey house in the early 2000s. (Fig. 4.45.)

Manuel Michaels

In 1898 Manuel Micheals (many records refer to him as Manuel Mincheal) had bought

building 15 (erf 89942) from Jan van Blerk. He owned it for 26 years and had toilets added to

his stone cottages in 1915 at a cost of £50. Manuel Michaels is the old whaler referred to in
Cyril Fernandez’s 1996 oral history:

At Kalk Bay there was also an old man who had whaling gear, an old coloured, Mr
Michaels. He came from Cape Verde. He had harpoons and bombs. The old man

could get these bombs from Portugal or somewhere.’

This family is well remembered in Kalk Bay – not least for the loss of the Four Sisters near

Cape Point on the 29 December 1962. One of the two men drowned in this tragedy was
Joseph ‘Boy’ Michaels aged 28.

Micheals’ estate sold to Charles McCarthy in 1924 and the property was bought by Ann
Helen Wolfsohn (born Sapelowski) in 1930. There were 21 people living there when it was

declared a slum in 1936. It formed part of the Flats project and was sold to Council for

demolition in 1939.

Slums Clearance Properties

House 16 stood at what is now the corner of Gordon and Harbour Roads (erf 89940). It was

bought from the Wicht estate by Gerhardus van der Poll in 1892. It passed through several
owners over the years including Doud Slamdien (1902 – 1908). It was bought in 1928 by Mrs

Rachel Jetty Harris (wife of Jacob ‘John’ Meyer Harris – longtime residents of Harris Road.)

It did not fall under the Slums Clearance scheme but in the latter stages of the Flats building
project it was realized that not enough flats had been planned for. This block – known as

Harris Villa, was bought in 1942 by Council and the last Council flat block was built here. In