Old Standard Bank now a heritage site
Blue plaque for heritage to the old Standard Bank building.
The old Standard Bank building has also been awarded blue plaque status.
On April 8, Tony Burisch of the Heidelberg Heritage Association awarded the latest blue plaque for heritage to Willem Nelson at the building.
The building was constructed during the Victorian era in 1886 and was owned by Standard Bank of British South Africa. In 1993, the Nelson family purchased the building and are still the owners.
The initial building was a small one in Church Street (now HF Verwoerd Street), thereafter at 60 Strydom Street.
FK Maré, the chief magistrate of Heidelberg, rented the previous building to Standard Bank of British South Africa from 1879 to 1881.
It was suspected but not confirmed that with the outbreak of the First Anglo Boer War, the then bank official, FW Standen, buried 10 700 gold pounds in the garden of WS McClaren from McClaren and Pagan, during 1881.
It was kept there until after the First Anglo Boer War.
