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further extensions followed in the 30s (Fig. 4.5.) The dining room at the St. James Retirement

Centre, which took over the St. James Hotel in the early 1990s, is named the Gentry Room in
honour of this great character. His famous “Dance to the Cool breezes at St. James” evenings

were well patronised for many years, (Fig. 4.6) especially as he had an arrangement with the

driver and conductor of the last steam train whereby he served them tea and coffee with
cheese and biscuits while he ushered his lingering guests aboard the train.

His wife Beatrice Ann Gentry was very popular with the nuns at Star of the Sea Convent and
supplied them with food hampers to brighten their mundane sustenance, which the junior

nuns had the responsibility of cooking. This was evident in the writings of the early nuns of

the Star of Sea to their counterparts at Springfield. She also supplied prizes each year for the
pupils of the St. James Mission School. These included six pretty necklaces which went to the

top pupils for the year.

Captain Gentry died July 1938 and the Colonial Orphan Chamber and Trust Co. bought the

premises for £21844 from his deceased estate on 23 December 1940. They later sold the

premises in 1944 to the St. James Hotel Ltd. (£24,000). The St. James Hotel continued to
cater for the opulent and the wealthy, and its early boast, as far back as 1907 that electricity

and the highest standard of good sanitation existed, was typical of its efforts to keep up with

modern developments and remain the premier hotel along this coastline.

The Seahurst Hotel

Situated on the southern border of St. James on the Main Road, and alongside Kimberley

Road, this was the only other hotel in St. James of quality and standing. Originally there were

two separate houses, adjacent to each other, on this site. (Fig. 4.7.) The north side house
operated as Eksteen’s Guest House under the ownership of Jan Willem Eksteen who had

bought the premises in January 1847 from the insolvent estate of C. M. Zastron. The house on
the south side was a private home.

Eksteen’s Guest House was a most attractive Tudor Style building. Circa 1900 this house was
bought from Eksteen’s deceased estate by Seahurst Hotels (Pty) Ltd. who also bought the

house on the south side, some five years later. Seahurst Hotels then linked these two houses