250px, View from Van der Walt / Lilian Ngoyi street

The Staats Model School is situated on the corner of Lilian Ngoyi (previously Van der Walt) and Nana Sita (previously Skinner) Streets in

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

Gauteng Province Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only 1 ...

, Republic of South Africa. It originated from a school established in 1893 to train teachers in the Zuid Afrikaansche Republik, or ZAR. Alfred Fernandez Harington was appointed English master on 1 October 1895.

Sytze Wierda Sytze Wopkes Wierda (28 February 1839 in Hemrik, the Netherlands – 10 December 1911 in Sea Point, South Africa) was a Dutch architect and engineer who played an important role in the architecture of the South African Republic in the late 1 ...

, chief architect of the ZAR, designed the building in 1895, and its construction was completed by Te Groen in 1896. The structure consists of brick and Stinkwater sandstone and adheres to the Neo Dutch Renaissance school of architecture. On 11 October 1899 the school closed as a result of the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War. During the war the building functioned as a hospital for Boer soldiers and as a prison for British officers. The escape of Winston Churchill, war correspondent and later British prime minister, from the building has become legend. The school regained some life from 1901 as ''Pretoria High School'', and from 1902 to 1909 as the ''Pretoria College for Boys'', which later became ''

Pretoria Boys High School , motto_translation = "Through courage and labour" , location = , streetaddress = 251 Roper Street, Brooklyn , region = , city = Pretoria , province = ...

''. In 1910 the college moved to larger premises and the Staats Model School building housed several other schools after that, including, in 1946, the ‘Hamilton Primary School’ (Robert Hamilton was a well-known businessman and benefactor of the school). The Library Services of the

Transvaal Education Department Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

, or TED, moved in during 1951. The building was declared a

national monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...

on 8 April 1960.

References

{{coord, 25, 45, 00, S, 28, 11, 38, E, type:landmark_region:ZA, display=title History of Pretoria School buildings completed in 1896 Monuments and memorials in South Africa History of South Africa Buildings and structures in Pretoria Schools in Gauteng 19th-century architecture in South Africa