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History: Immediately above the three single-storeyed semi detached houses, Nos. 153, 155 and 157, Dorp Street, stands the double-storeyed house, Saxenhof, formerly also known as Neethling House.
The land on which this house stands was granted to Pieter Andriesz Saxe already in 1704. He owned the place for sixteen years and it is accepted that it was he who built the original H-shaped Cape-Dutch house.
During the eighteenth century the property was owned consecutively by twelve different owners, most of whom bore strange names, no longer come across at Stellenbosch - Palmer, Couterman, Cats, D’Ailly, Geneke, Mosser and others. The church council of the Dutch Reformed Church purchased the house as a residence for the sexton, but sold it again after seven years.
In 1833 this house came into the hands of Dr. Jacob Versfeld, a man whose name has become proverbial at Stellenbosch. It is on record that he was the first doctor who was trained in South Africa, for in 1819 he was enrolled as an apprentice by Dr. Samuel Bailey of Cape Town. On payment of sixty pounds Dr. Bailey undertook to teach the young Versfeld “the profession and occupation of a surgeon” and at the same time to provide him with the necessities of life.
In 1822 Versfeld went to Scotland where he obtained the M.D. degree in Edinburgh in 1825. In 1830 he settled at Stellenbosch where he practised for 54 years. Except for three years, he lived at Saxenhof for the whole of that period. In 1889 the executors of his widow’s estate sold the house to another medical man, Dr. J. H. Neethling. Shortly after he converted the old single-storeyed house into a charming Georgian type double-storeyed house. The original and beautiful old ceilings as well as a few side- and back-windows of the old house were kept intact.
At Stellenbosch Dr. Johannes Henoch Neethling made a name for himself not only as the time-honoured family doctor, but also as public figure who served on the most important bodies such as the University Council. As a result of his reputation, his residence was spontaneously dubbed Neethling House. After his death the house came into the possession of Professor J. S. Marais, his son-in-law, later head of the Stellenbosch-Elsenburg Agricultural College.
Proclaimed 1970"
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