I wonder if anybody in Port Elizabeth knows when the first Art in the Park took place? Art in the Park has been happening in St Georges Park on the last Sunday of the month for just about forever. Started about 33 years ago the market was initially for hand made good only but after a decline in numbers several years ago they started allowing bric and brac stalls as well. Although its nowhere as big as it used to be, the…
Very few locals would know that the Prince Alfred Guard Memorial forms the certral ornamental feature of Port Elizabeth's second oldest water reservoir. In the early 1900's it was decided to supply water to Port Elizabeth from the Bulk and Sand Rivers and the St. George's Reservoir was constructed as a part of this scheme. Excavation for the reservoir was commenced at the end of August 1906 and on 6 November 1907 the Treasurer-General, the Honourable Edgar H. Walton, turned the water into the new Service Reservoir…
On the top of the central pedestal of the Prince Alfred Guard Memorial in St Georges Park is a life-size figure of a sergeant-major of Prince Alfred's Guard. He is dressed in full uniform and is always standing at the ready to "charge".
A couple of years ago I posted on The Firefly Photo Files about the Spider Lilies I have in a pot at home (here and here). I was very surprised to find a lot of Spider Lilies in flower next to the big fish pond in St Georges Park when I walked through there the other day. Was quite impressed to see them in flower seeing that mine flowered about a month or so ago already.
St Georges Park has a stunning outdoor theatre venue called Mannville which (used to) host the annual Port Elizabeth Shakespearean Festival. Unfortunately due to people who feel that they are entitled to other folks' property and those who purposefully go out and damage what is not theirs, the festival has been moved to indoor theatres the last two years. The theatre was established in 1972 by Bruce and Helen Mann and if only these bad elements can be kept out of the park,…
Port Elizabeth has some wonderful historic cemeteries, one of them the Scottish Cemetery in St Georges Park. The first cemetery in Port Elizabeth was St Mary's Cemetery which started as a military cemetery, but after the arrival of the British Settlers it was assigned to the St Mary's Collegiate Church and opened for the burial of all Christians in the town. The growth of the town increased the demands placed upon St Mary's Cemetery and allocations of small pieces of land on…
The Pearson Conservatory is really looking stunning since its refurb two years ago. Gaelyn from Geogypsy is on tour through South Africa and I was very fortunate that she spent the day with me yesterday. She had seen most of the places we visited on PE Daily Photo before, but seeing it in real life is just so much more special. St Georges Park and the Conservatory was one of the places I took her to and she was amazed at how beautiful…
Valentines Day is a day of flowers. Personally I prefer the flowers in the garden or the wild rather than sitting in a vase inside. So to celebrate Valentines Day I'm posting a pic of a Bromeliad flower in St Georges Park, photographed when we went in search of a Geocache there the other day.
There are a couple of war memorials around St Georges Park commemorating those from Port Elizabeth who have died in various wars over the years. A number of them refer to the two World Wars with the most prominent one being the Cenotaph in front of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum. One of the lesser known ones is a plaque on the front wall of the art museum.
Perhaps the title of the post is a little bit misleading, but "The site of the first tree in St Georges Park which was blown over and isn't there anymore" would be a little too long. The first tree to be planted in the park was done so during the official establishment of the park in 1861. The tree blew over in 2001 with the original inscription then being moved to the municipality's park division offices in the park. We went after…