Page 43 - KBHA BULLETIN 2

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Bishop Rooney wanted the convent built to a much smaller design but Father Duignam was

insistent, especially regarding the beautiful balcony, and it was through his foresight that we have
this magnificent building facing the slopes of the St. James mountains.

The recreational concept was based on the firm belief that St. James, with the sea air, was an

ideal site as a cure of all those sick and weary. This belief was enhanced when Cecil Rhodes
bought a cottage in the Main Road in 1899 to recuperate from the heat and strain of travelling to

the interior. This, plus the fact that Britain has chosen Muizenberg as a convalescent camp for the

soldiers during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-902), furthered the area as an ideal health resort- a
factor the Kalk Bay – Muizenberg Municipality actively traded on to increase revenue from

tourism and rates, which were guaranteed by the many new homes and hotels.

In many reports from the memoirs of the early nuns it was stated that Father Duignam with his

own bare hands quarried the rock for the building of the convent out of the St. James mountains.
This was more likely to have been one of Father Duignam many “yarns” to the younger nuns

during the 1920s as it was highly unlikely that any of the faced quarry store came from the St.
James mountains as there was no quarry there that could have produced such stone. What did

happen though was that Sir John Jackson, who was commissioned to build His Majesty’s

Dockyard in Simon’s Town, was friendly with Father Duignam and it is most likely that the bulk
of the faced quarry stone came from the Simon’s Town quarry, as had the stone for the Church

and the Marine Aquarium. Father Duignam was assisted in the construction of the convent by a

few Italian Stone masons (on loan from Sir John Jackson), and many of the local Filipino and
Manila fisherfolk of Kalk Bay - all of whom were parishioners of the church.

Life for the nuns at the Convent, even though many were there to recuperate on sick leave, was

not exactly easy. There was, in the early years, no electricity (installed 1910, until then paraffin

lamps were used), no telephone (finally installed in 1919), no laundry facilities (a zinc bath was
used), and a very basic wood-burning stove where it was reported “the heat went anywhere but

where it was intended”. Ironing was done with a heavy iron with coals, and the food was simple

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