A BRIEF HISTORY OF SABLE / THABANA HOUSE
Thabana (Sesotho for ‘the little hill’ cf Thabana Ntlenyana - the ‘beautiful little mountain’ - the highest mountain peak south of Kilimanjaro in Lesotho, access to it can be gained via Sani Pass or Thaba Nchu, the town in the Free State;) was built in 1902 by Charlie Marx a prominent mining magnate - chairman of the Johannesburg Turf Club and a member of the elite Rand Club. It was built facing south as were many other homes for residents from Europe who built them “south for the sun” amazingly being unaware that the sun is north for us. In Thabana the servants’ accommodation was situated on the north! At the time the old Tsessebe, Friedenheim, home of Sir Julius Jeppe still stood grandly across the road. Keith Hall, now Roan House was built in the same era. The garden, kept up by Mrs Marx and plenty of labourers was quite famous in the area.
After Mrs Marx died, the house became a private hotel for some years and then was bought by the YMCA as a Men’s Hostel in 1948. They erected the prefab now used as a prep room as a recreation room. They bought it from the BOAC for 200 pounds. In 1956, after the YMCA had built their premises in Rissik Street, the house was taken over by Mr R S Jones and from 1957 it operated as a private boarding house with its members initially spread for a short time between Oribi and Tsessebe or distributed among the day boy houses. According to Mr Bill Silburn, this arrangement only lasted for about a term and then it was decided to make Sable a boarding house in its own right. In any event the arrangement couldn’t have been for longer than a year as there is a full house report for Sable House in the 1958 edition of the school magazine.
There is some mystery as to how it was that Thabana came to be given the name Sable and why Orange was chosen as its colour: Previously (from 1946) Roan and Sable had been day boy houses in the school but were closed at the end of 1957. The entry for Roan House in the school magazine of that year reads as follows:
Next year the day boys in the house will be scattered among the other Houses of the School, and Roan will be taken over by the members of Thabana. This seems a pity, because Roan has always been a good dayboy house, but we hope that the Thabanas will strive to keep up the good reputation which Roan has enjoyed in the past.
The Day Boy Sable House report of the same year ends with the following lament:
… the rather bitter news, that as from next year Sable will cease to exist came as a shock to the entire house. We therefore, for the last time as Sable House, wish the readers of magazine, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
In the 1958 school magazine the report from Thabana is clearly headed SABLE HOUSE.
To make this even more intriguing, according to Mr Silburn, originally the dayboy house of Sable apparently had had maroon as its colour and Roan had been orange.
Perhaps Old Boys can enlighten us as to the reason for Thabana becoming Sable but retaining Roan House’s colour of orange?
Mr Silburn has a theory that accounts for some of the above: Ever ready to save money, Mr Jones took the orange from Roan because a set of rugby jerseys existed in that colour but not in maroon !! In any event, maroon was thought to be too close to Duiker’s red.
The three founding housemasters were Messrs Reginald S Jones, Peter van der Riet, currently the school architect and Brian D Cheadle (former Professor of English at the University of the Witwatersrand).
In 1981 the Jeppe Schools Trust purchased Thabana from Mr Jones and in 1982 all the property south of the school bounded by Marshall Street was expropriated by the province. Sable became a Jeppe-owned private hostel on State property and Mr Jones moved Thabana to its current site in Roberts avenue. From this time the House was only known as Sable.
Mr Jones requested that the name of Thabana be restored to its historical home when his property in Roberts Avenue is eventually disposed of. The House as a school unit would obviously remain Sable but this House, since its inception as a hostel, has been Thabana and it would be fitting if the School preserved it that way for posterity.
In 1999, shortly before he died, then headmaster, Mr Kevin Tait, asked Mr Jones whether he would allow that the name Thabana be taken back to its original site at the school. He seemed very pleased with this suggestion and said that he had always thought of it as Thabana. The Sable Parents Committee had the name engraved on a wooden plate and it was mounted at the front door to the House. Thus from 1999 the House itself once again became known as Thabana, the only hostel which, for historical reasons, has a different name to its name in the School’s Inter- house competition.
In addition, the Sable Parents’ Committee took up the suggestion made at the refurbishment in 1998 that they establish a rose garden in memory of Mr Jones and they planted Just Joey roses (Taffy’s favourite rose - they are a beautiful full budded, prolific blooming, soft apricot colour ) in the beds on the east and north side of the House.
The refurbishment in 1998 referred to above was done be the well known firm of restorators Gordon, Verhoef and Krause under the supervision of Peter van der Riet.
In 2004 the Dining Room and Lounge of Thabana were refurbished for use as a Conference Centre by Andre Grobler (Koodoo 1976).
