Cuyler Manor Museum

The museum is situated on the old Uitenhage to Port Elizabeth road.

Colonel Cuyler purchased the farm Doom Kraal, from a Dutch farmer, Johannes Booyse, in 1814 for 1000 rix-dollars and renamed it, Cuyler Manor. He acquired over 32 000 acres of land during his 22 years as Landdrost of Uitenhage, but it was on Doom Kraal that he built the homestead to which he retired in 1827, after the system of Landdrost was abolished.

The house was built by slave labour, as was the custom in those days. The workers were not craftsmen trained in any particular track. This can be seen by the fact that doors do not hang true, and the passage walls are not straight. The same can be seen on the walls of the wagon house.

Cuyler Manor was built in the Cape Dutch style on the T-plan, with the voorkamer flanked by a bedroom on each side. The rooms behind it open onto the passage, which leads to the kitchen. The room on the left of the voorkamer was General Cuyler’s bedroom. A small room, once used as a dressing room, leads off the bedroom. The bedroom has a muurkas with the original wooden doors.

There are two cellars, one under each of the front bedrooms. The cellar under the left bedroom was used to store fruit and vegetables, while the other was used as a dairy.

The walls are of sun-dried bricks covered with lime plaster. The roof is high pitched and has been restored to the original thatch. The loft stretches the length and the breadth of the house and there is a “brand solder”. The Yellowwood rafters and beams in the roof are mortised and pinned.

Many changes were made to the house. At some time a veranda with wooden railings and trim was added to the front. In 1928 the wooden trellis was removed and replaced by a brick wall. Verandas were added on both sides and a bedroom was constructed on the Eastside. The entrance to the house was then on the Northside. The kitchen was also modernised.

The municipality purchased the house in 1966 from the Cuyler Family and restored it during the 1970s to its original Cape Dutch style. The slate roof tiles were replaced with thatch, the centre gable (removed when the thatch burnt down) was restored, the verandas were removed and the original steps to the house were cleared. The Yellowwood doors and beams, which had been painted cream, were stripped and treated. The wooden floors, which had been laid in the “voorkamer” and the kitchen, were removed and replaced with brick tiles.

Close to the house is the cottage, which General Cuyler built for his son. At the turn of the century, this cottage was used as the foreman’s residence. It was later converted to garages but has been restored to its original form.

The slave quarters stood at the back of the house next to the stables and the wagon house.

It was declared a National Monument under the old NM Council legislation on March 14 1980.

As a living museum, demonstrations of traditional activities such as soap and candle making, baking, gingerbeer making, sausage making, smear cow-dung flooring, touch and feed animals can be arranged.