Staats Model School, Van der Walt Street, Pretoria

Similar to the lesser ZAR Public Works Department’s Republican buildings of that era, this building was completed in 1896. The famous artist Pierneef attended the school before the Anglo-Boer War. During the war the structure was used as a prison for captured British officers, from which Winston Churchill escaped at the age of 25. The school was the forerunner of both Pretoria Boys High School and Clapham High School. The sandstone and redbrick materials are composed in an Eclectic Wilhelmina style. Sytze Wierda was born in the Netherlands and was renowned as the first Government Architect and Engineer for the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR). Over the fourteen years of working for the Government, he and his team developed the Republican Style (also known as Eclectic Wilhelmina), designing numerous Significant Buildings. His exact Town of birth, is disputed and even his Architectural Education is unclear, though it is known that he was originally Schooled to be a Carpenter. The suburb of Wierdapark, in Centurion, is named after him. This Building was declared a National Monument under old NMC legislation on 8 April 1960.