Die Nederlandse Reherformrde Kerk (Paul Kruger Church) Pretoria

The year 1859 marks the founding of the Reformed Church, in Pretoria and its first church was built in the town in 1863. Only on 21 December 1894 did the church board decide to gather money for a new church building. Klaas van Rijsse was hired as architect and in April 1896 the tender by Daanen & Dorlas was accepted. The corner stone of the church was laid by Paul Kruger on 10 October 1896 during which a lead tube, with information and documentations of the Reformed Church and otherS of the time, was plastered in. In 1951, with the restoration of the building, The tube was reopened and additional information added. It was again inserted into the church wall. The church was formally opened by Kruger on 25 December 1897. In May 1949 the restoration of the church building’s roof was commissioned and during this process the roof was extended by 600mm and the top two brick courses were removed. During this restoration period the roof ventilators were also removed, the roof of the vestry was replaced, and the pitched roofs of the stairwells were replaced with flat concrete roofs. Since October 1950 a larger restoration process started which included the rebuild of the external brick shell of the church with a harder type of brick, slightly darker than the original, improvement of natural lighting with the addition of new windows, a new door to the consistory, the replacement of the lintels with new specially made bricks, and the installation of a cable system inside the church to reinforce the structure. In 1951 some of the timber window frames and eroded sandstone were replaced. The Paul Kruger hall which was located to the south-west of the church on the same site and built with face brick in 1955, was replaced in 1983 with a new church hall located to the back of the church, designed by architects Moerdyk, Holzapfel and Slabbert. Hereafter the church was again restored by Moerdyk and Holzapfel in 1979. Most recently, in 2009, attention was given to the sandstone detailing by specialist sandstone contractors.