Page 138 - Bulletin 22 2019

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Clairvaux Road house which sold on auction to William James Page for £1,670 in 1941.

The house at 2 Harris Road (erf 89967) called Mon Desir had been bought by William Page in
1928. Number 4 (erf 89966), formerly Rousseau, now called Westbank, was sold to Peter Villet

the same year. (Fig. 3.30.)

Development of Harris Road

Harris Road itself was a quiet area, separated from the village proper. It had a quite different

character to say the Middeldorp around Windsor Road and the area of Die Dam around Lever

Street. It attracted some wealthy and distinguished investors and property prices tended to be
higher than in other parts of Kalk Bay. The earliest houses were Gordon Cottage and Essex

Cottage built around 1897. By 1901 the first of the four ‘Villas’ as they are called to this day had
been built. (Fig. 3.31.)

The many Harrises in Kalk Bay from the late 1800s to the early 1900s are listed below:

 James Harris – a Scottish general dealer who built and owned most of the houses in
Harris Road. In 1900 he had a shop in the Main Road Kalk Bay.
 John (Black) Harris – brother of James and owner of a shop in Simon’s Town – they
were probably twins.
 Jacob ‘Jack’ Harris and his wife Rachel, a Jewish couple who lived in Harris Road for
many years.
 Harris Butchery Main Road Kalk Bay – owned by Jack Harris.
 Harris & Block General Dealers Main Road Kalk Bay – David Harris, Jack’s brother.
 Harris Shoe Store Main Road Kalk Bay – owned for many years by Ashton Harris,
originally from England – not related to any of the others.

The Scottish Harris brothers, James and John, were almost certainly twins. James was clearly a

far-sighted man who realized the potential of this part of Kalk Bay. In 1897 he took a mortgage
for £600 to buy a piece of land of about 2.5 ha – which was probably between Kalk Bay