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The business and residential community around Paarl Station
An estimated 15,000 Jewish core families migrated to Southern Africa between 1850-1950 from Lithuania, England, Germany, Latvia, Belarus and Poland.
Paarl was a popular place for the Jews to settle. (View data base: Jewish Settlers in Paarl) The Jews were excellent business people with a strong entrepreneurial spirit.
Coinciding with the early period in which the Jewish migration took place, the Cape Town Railway and Dock Company (1862) constructed the railway line from Cape Town to Wellington, passing through Paarl. Jewish Settlers soon became property owners and most of the retail businesses and business property around the Paarl railway station were owned and traded by the Jewish. With no doubt, the Jews made a huge contribution to property development in Paarl, as well as establishing entrepreneurial retail businesses serving the community, creating a new multi cultural community in Paarl.
(Find Jewish family roots)
As it goes, people are born. They grow up, they grow old and they pass away. They live and work in buildings which are built on a street and by being there, the people form a community.
As time goes by, the people change, the community gets other values and new cultures are formed. Some buildings remain. These are the quiet witnesses of all the living, working and trading of the past. It serves as a reminder to us how perishable people are and how short a life is in compared to the monuments that we create in the architectural fashion of the time we live in.
Something of this happened during the past 150+ years at Paarl Station in Suider Paarl. Today, the Jews have moved on. They became business professionals and some migrated to explore new opportunities. The buildings at Paarl station remained. Ironically, I believe that nobody who were involved in the building and creating of the area would believe their eyes if they could view it today.
Today, the property owners of the area surely have different views and opinions.
Paarl was a popular place for the Jews to settle. (View data base: Jewish Settlers in Paarl) The Jews were excellent business people with a strong entrepreneurial spirit.
Coinciding with the early period in which the Jewish migration took place, the Cape Town Railway and Dock Company (1862) constructed the railway line from Cape Town to Wellington, passing through Paarl. Jewish Settlers soon became property owners and most of the retail businesses and business property around the Paarl railway station were owned and traded by the Jewish. With no doubt, the Jews made a huge contribution to property development in Paarl, as well as establishing entrepreneurial retail businesses serving the community, creating a new multi cultural community in Paarl.
(Find Jewish family roots)
As it goes, people are born. They grow up, they grow old and they pass away. They live and work in buildings which are built on a street and by being there, the people form a community.
As time goes by, the people change, the community gets other values and new cultures are formed. Some buildings remain. These are the quiet witnesses of all the living, working and trading of the past. It serves as a reminder to us how perishable people are and how short a life is in compared to the monuments that we create in the architectural fashion of the time we live in.
Something of this happened during the past 150+ years at Paarl Station in Suider Paarl. Today, the Jews have moved on. They became business professionals and some migrated to explore new opportunities. The buildings at Paarl station remained. Ironically, I believe that nobody who were involved in the building and creating of the area would believe their eyes if they could view it today.
Today, the property owners of the area surely have different views and opinions.
- Some will just trade from the property to the benefit of their own, without thinking that the type of trade they are conducting is actually contributing to the decay of their property, but mostly to the degeneration of the area.
- Some will “know” that redevelopment might happen in the area and they will just wait to sell their pot of gold without noticing that the lack of maintenance to their property is actually masking the shine of their gold.
- Some might just not be in a financial position to maintain their assets.
- Some will realize that it is sensible to maintain and renovate the heritance of what we have in the area.
- Others will see a bigger picture and do intensive renovations of their assets and even plan for the redevelopment of the whole area.
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