Melrose House is a stately

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...

and museum located on

Burgers Park Burgers Park is a park located in the center of Pretoria, South Africa. Founded in the 1870s as a botanical garden, it covers four acres and has been declared a South African National Monument. It is named for Thomas François Burgers, fourth p ...

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

History

Built in 1886 by the prosperous Pretoria businessman George Jesse Heys, it was named after the famous

Melrose Abbey St Mary's Abbey, Melrose is a partly ruined monastery of the Cistercian order in Melrose, Roxburghshire, in the Scottish Borders. It was founded in 1136 by Cistercian monks at the request of King David I of Scotland and was the chief house of ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. Melrose House gained fame during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

(1899–1902) when Lord Roberts requisitioned it as the headquarters for the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

forces after Pretoria was invaded in June 1900. For more than 18 months, instructions for the British forces in the field were issued from here. The use of the house as a military headquarters ended when the

Treaty of Vereeniging The Treaty of Vereeniging was a peace treaty, signed on 31 May 1902, that ended the Second Boer War between the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, on the one side, and the United Kingdom on the other. This settlement provided f ...

, which ended the war, was signed there on 31 May 1902. The Pretoria City Council purchased the house and its contents in 1967 for R300,000 for restoration, culminating in

State President of South Africa The State President of the Republic of South Africa ( af, Staatspresident) was the head of state of South Africa from 1961 to 1994. The office was established when the country became a republic on 31 May 1961, albeit, outside the Commonweal ...

Charles Robberts Swart Charles Robberts Swart (5 December 1894 – 16 July 1982), nicknamed ''Blackie'', was a South African politician who served as the last governor-general of the Union of South Africa from 1959 to 1961 and the first state president of the Republ ...

opening it as a museum and declaring it a national heritage site on May 17, 1971.

Museum

Today the elegant mansion is a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a ...

. It is an example of the transition from Victorian to

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

architectural style An architectural style is a set of characteristics and features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. It is a sub-class of style in the visual arts generally, and most styles in architecture relate closely ...

s and interiors. The interior is characterised by colourful

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

windows, paintings by English artists, carpets in rich colours, ornate ceilings and fireplaces, as well as valuable

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainl ...

ornaments. The majority of these items belonged to the Heys family itself. Notably the museum contains the room and the table on which the

(which ended the

) was signed. Annual antique markets are held on the premises.

Bibliography

* ''Wêreldspektrum'', 1982, , vol. 18, p. 114 * Fisher, Roger C. (compiler): ''Visuele leksikon van die Suid-Afrikaanse woning''. Cape Town: Unibook Publishers, 1992.

External links

*
Melrose House
360 degree Virtual Tour on Visit Pretoria {{coord, 25.7555, S, 28.1925, E, source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Museums in Pretoria Houses in South Africa Houses completed in 1886 Historic house museums in South Africa History of Pretoria