Complete with a gable sporting a winged hour-glass as reminder amongst other things, that time flies even if you’re not having fun, Reinet House was constructed with customary Cape Dutch flourish by slaves from locally acquired material to be a parsonage in 1812. The curved staircase spilling onto the cobble-stone courtyard (added in 1820) and hand-hewn railing on the front stoep (1835), were familiar to clerical dignitaries such as the revered Rev Andrew Murray who resided there until his death in 1904. 

Despite a fungal attack, a black oak, planted by his son Charles in 1870, still adorns the lavish gardens. Victorian trimmings were added in 1906 when it served as boarding house for women trainee teachers. In 1974 a wagon house was added and in 1978 a Mill House complete with water-wheel. Now a museum, it hosts one of Africa’s most extensive doll collections, period furniture, kitchen utensils, medical and dental paraphernalia, haberdashery and clothing, wagon and transport displays, a blacksmith collection as well as dinosaur skeletons and fossils.

Perhaps not quite known for the heights of debauchery achieved by Nairobi’s notorious Happy Valley set, bullet holes in the bar counter of the Graaff-Reinet Club attest to at least a reasonable level of renegade revelry at this second oldest social club in South Africa - spawned as it was by a need for interactive jollification. For men that is. 

First purchased in 1875 by company-hungry townsmen and local farmers, it was a strictly menonly sanctuary. By 1902 the unsparing acceptance process included approval by two doctors. About 700 members passed in the following half-century. Still predominantly pour hommes only, the membership stands at around 200 today. 

Thus, not quite ex-pat Kenya circa 1930s carefree carousing, but the indents in the bar counter courtesy of the British Coldstream Guards on their departure from the town, do place it up there with famous halls of undue discomposure such as Mexico City’s La Opera Bar with its pockmarked ceiling left in the wake of the Zapatista rebel, Pancho Villa’s failed assassination. 

In the sad absence of Pierneef’s famous Station Panels that made Graaff-Reinet one of Africa’s must-see destinations for art lovers, there is ample solace in the permanent exhibit at the Hester Rupert Museum which, had history suffered a slightly different twist, could easily have

ended up as a filling station. Relive South Africa’s swinging 60s through over 126 works by 106 of our country’s most accomplished sculptors and brushmeisters. The museum not only offers a temporary skip down memory lane, but an opportunity to marvel at the restored 19th century edifice it calls home. Originally constructed to serve as a church and school for the Graaff-Reinet missionary society in 1821 and built by artisans in the congregation, it was the sixth church in South Africa and one of three remaining constructed on the traditional cruciform ground plan. Then, barely saved from becoming a filling station in the mid-1960s when a sale to the Historical Homes of South Africa was negotiated by Anton Rupert (whose mother Hester had been born in Graaff-Reinet), it was restored to its former grand and gabled glory, officially opened as a museum and handed to the town council in 1965.

Now a national monument, the gallery was opened in 1966 with 90 donated paintings and sculptures by 83 artists and opened by President CR (Blackie) Swart. Most of the work is South African art generated in the 1960s in all its bright and funky quasi-cubist flamboyance, but the collection also includes efforts by other regular A-listers such as Irma Stern and Alexis Preller.

The actual date of the completion of the structure is unknown, but it was consecrated by Dr John Phillip of the London Mission Society in 1847. Dr Anton Rupert purchased and restored the old ’Coloured Missions Church - referred to as Groot London - and donated it to Graaff-Reinet to the benefit of the community. The building is named after John Rupert, Anton Rupert’s father. After serving as an art gallery, the building was converted into a Little Theatre in 1980 by the Graaff-Reinet Round Table.

An all-important cog in the cultural life of Graaff-Reinet, it is run by volunteers who screen two films every month (an evening show on the first Wednesday of the month and a matinee on the third Saturday) as well as hosting regular plays, musicals or comedy and dance performances. The theatre is also used by touring companies for their productions. The John Rupert Little Theatre is also available for hire as a venue for conferences or large meetings.

A split in the congregation over a certain Rev Naudé, saw the absconders building a new church elsewhere in town, but the two camps reconciled during a historical service after nine decades last year.