Page 26 - Bulletin 13 2009

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the convent for an infant school. Later it became the boarder’s dining-room and in 1947
was completely reconstructed to serve as a chapel.

In 1917 a laundry was added (architect Fred Glennie). Eventually it was obvious that an

extension to the convent was necessary and in 1919 Fr. Duignam again approached Fred

Glennie, later architect of Natale Labia’s palatial home, The Fort on Main Road,
Muizenberg. A double storey building was designed to run at right angles from the

balcony at the south end of the convent. This plan, with an estimate of £4000, was made
without the approval of the Dominican Sisters, who were to settle the account, and they

rejected it as too expensive. A revised plan for a stone-faced building was submitted by
a local builder, Mr H. C. Poole, whose daughter, studying architecture at UCT, drew the

plans and acted as architect. The budget was reduced to £2000, but Fred Glennie’s fee

of £40 had to be paid. Difficulty was encountered with the Municipality in approval of
the plans, as the Municipality was reluctant to allow an extension of a private school at

the expense of attracting pupils away from public municipal schools. This was resolved

when it was agreed that the building was to be constructed only to house existing pupils
and it was not the intention to extend the school. (Figs. 1.12 & 1.13).

The building budget of £2000 was exceeded by £533-16s-0d and would have been even

higher, but for the use of the large number of quarry stones which were lying at the back
of the convent and had been left over from its original construction. The cost of

removing a dangerous retaining wall, and difficulties with an underground perennial

spring which had affected the foundations, required the services of the City Engineer
and this increased the final account, as did another problem, that of a large boulder

which could not be removed and necessitated the raising of the floor slab.

Springfield helped with the bill, and fetes and dances were held at Star to assist with
payments. Father Duignam contributed £300. The building, which consisted of six

additional class-rooms, was completed at the end of 1920 and greatly alleviated the

class-room crisis which, by 1924, housed one hundred and fifty pupils from
kindergarten to matric, as well as eleven sisters and twenty-three boarders. This was the