There is a huge farm +- 27 kilometres out of Bathurst. Langholm farm. Many stories have been handed down about the ambitious scheme circa 1800s to establish a village there. At one stage in history, portions were subdivided, and sold off. One must assume the project failed? Langholm is known for pineapples. (it is on the way to Grahamstown, on the R67). So the theory makes sense ne? ). A family who live on the remaining portion have found evidence, of an old cheese factory and from earlier times, Khoisan artefacts. The name Schlesinger is a famous name, in history, and it was his scheme to develop the village. He was famous too for the many incredible developments in the rand and the buildings of course. The response to the Then and Now pictures of His Majestys has been tremendous. We have received numerous emails asking for and providing more information about Isidore William Schlesinger. Below are excerpts from Clive Chipkins classic Johannesburg Style followed by photographs of a few landmarks associated with the great entrepreneur. Enjoy... I.W. Schlesinger landed in South Africa from New York in 1894, aged 23, and moved to the Rand, then fast emerging as the centre of South African economic activity. He was soon to become what Eric Rosenthal has called perhaps the greatest South African entrepreneur since Cecil Rhodes. He began his career taking orders for American manufacturers and then switching to insurance; soon he was acknowledged as one of the greatest salesman of all time. By 1902 he had founded African Realty Trust and by 1904 African Life Assurance, which in the first year of its existence established a world record for the sale of insurance policies. In 1913 he founded the African Theatres Trust, the forerunner of African Consolidated Theatres (which became the controller of the major cinema houses and the film industry in South Africa), and in 1925 African Caterers Limited for the purchase of bioscope tea-rooms - in reality this was the forerunner of the Schlesinger hotel empire. It was said of Schlesinger that if you talked insurance, you were also talking city centre properties, hotels, cinemas and luxury apartments. In 1908 Schlesinger moved into the Carlton Hotel as a permanent resident. The fifth-floor suite facing Eloff Street remained his residence for much of his life until he moved to Killarney. Arthur Barlow recalled his meetings with Schlesinger in the mid-1930s over whisky and soda in his study at Whitehall Court. It was there that the sale of the Sunday Express to the mining groups was concluded. Finally, in 1925 Schlesingers holding company, African Caterers, secured a 51 per cent majority interest in Carlton Hotels Limited. In this stroke Schlesinger captured the citadel of the Carlton, the caravanserai of royalty and the travelling rich when visiting the Rand gold-fields. Even the well-established hotel industry was shaken up. He renovated the Carlton Hotel and built the Polana at Lourenco Marques, the Edward on Marine Parade in Durban, and the Riviera on the Vaal at Vereeniging - hotels which were bywords in their day for service and luxury. Additional sources describe Schlesingers achievements establishing pineapple plantations (Langholm Farm) near Bathurst and the huge Zebediela orange orchards in Limpopo. The latter was once described as the largest orange orchard in the world Schlesinger established over 100 companies in multiple industries and certainly left his mark on this country! Do look at the page, is it marvellous. :D heritageportal.co.za/article/schlesingers-south-africa
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 06:31:15 +0000
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