All sources point to the origins of Upper Houghton as we know it today stretching back to 1888. The summary below is a consolidation of many different sources and probably pretty close to the truth. There are three discussions each with their own flavour covering the same ground with the first starting with the history of Houghton Estate, unofficially known as ‘Lower’ and ‘Upper’ Houghton… In an
effort to include as much information as possible, there are some repeats and different styles of writing. The suburb of Houghton Estate lies in the Northern suburbs of Johannesburg. It borders several suburbs including Saxonwold, Melrose, Norwood and Killarney. It is only a few kilometres from the Johannesburg city centre and is very close to both the Rosebank and Killarney shopping centres. It is unofficially divided into a northern section known as Lower Houghton and a higher southern area called Upper Houghton, stretching South of Houghton Drive which is at the bottom of Houghton ridge. The suburb was formerly part of the farm Klipfontein which was owned by J J Grobbler. In February 1888 he leased part of his farm to Samuel Fox who was acting on behalf of Henry Roberts (Fox was one of the early Randlords and he had bought and sold Orange Grove.) In July of the same year Fox sublet a portion of the property to W S Barrett and F S Mc Hattie at £110 a year. They planted a forest of 250 000 blue gums on the land for timber for the mines. Fox then ceded the lease to Joseph Nicholson who subsequently ceded the rights to a syndicate of Pietermaritzburg businessmen who hoped to find gold in the area. The property leased to the syndicate was a strip of land which ran along the northern foot of the Houghton ridge from Orange Grove to a point west of where the Killarney Shopping Centre now stands. A month after acquiring the lease the syndicate bought Grobbler’s land. The syndicate sank a shaft near where the shopping centre now is and began mining operations. Their engineers reported the presence of payable gold and they floated the Houghton Estate and Gold Mining Company in 1889 with a capital of £300 000. The small amount of profitable gold soon petered out and eventually the ground was deproclaimed. In 1894 the syndicate decided to develop an exclusive residential township on the land and the company’s name was changed to Houghton Estate Company. From 1896 stands were sold in the southern part which became Upper Houghton. In that year Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company (JCI) acquired the land but only sold stands from 1901. In January 1902 JCI purchased the northern part of the land where Barrett had established his plantation and added the land, which is now known as ‘Lower Houghton’, to the township. Because JCI wanted to clear the land, Barrett stood to lose his fine plantation. The dispute went to the Supreme Court in Pretoria but was settled in 1904. Initially demand for stands in Houghton Estate was slow and by 1910 only 649 erven had been sold, many to the great mining barons and other influential people of the time. Some of their lovely homes dating back to the turn of the twentieth century remain. Up to about 1920 Houghton could not match the popularity of Parktown. But in the 1930s leading architects began building houses on the large Houghton stands in the so-called International Style. This helped to accelerate development of the area as a very upmarket residential suburb with large beautiful houses, well-tended gardens and tree-lined streets. The suburb retained its rural character because of the enforcement of strict building controls. For example, roofs could not be made of corrugated iron. Tiles, slate, thatch and shingles were allowed. Concrete roofs were also permitted, apparently for the first and only time in Johannesburg. The area has a diverse topography with low ridges and broad valleys along which parks and golf courses have been laid. Most of the stands are large, (approximately 4000m²) and are well treed. The suburb is enhanced by The Wilds – which was donated to the city by JCI in 1937 and proclaimed as a National Monument on 20 February 1981. The Wilds is on a ‘koppie’ which used to separate ‘Upper’ and ‘Lower’ Houghton until The Munro Drive was constructed in 1919. Houghton has always been renowned for its schools. On the ridge in Upper Houghton is St Johns College, with its superb Herbert Baker buildings which were first occupied in 1907. Not far from it is King Edwards VII Boys High School. In Lower Houghton there is Houghton Primary School which was built after World War I. References:
Lower Houghton Residents Association
Early Johannesburg: Its buildings and its People by Hannes Meiring 1986
A History of Johannesburg by G A Leyds
The Johannesburg Saga by John R Shorten
Johannesburg Street Names by Anna H Smith 1971
