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History: The Cottage is a worthy T -shaped old Cape house, probably built in 1832.

Across the main road from the Auld House in Swellendam there is a very interesting historical group - a small square, a row of tuishuise or farmers’ town houses and The Cottage. The peaceful square with ancient oaks along three sides of it, is old. It probably dates from the time when the Dutch Reformed congregation was established in 1798.
On the east of the square there is a row of old-fashioned tuishuise. In olden times when accommodation in the town presented difficulties, especially when nagmaal was being celebrated, farmers either had their own town houses or hired houses in the town. Such tuishuise or lodging houses became a feature of many towns in the interior of the country and represented an important aspect of the way of life of farming communities. These tuishuise facing the square in Swellendam not only preserve something of the atmosphere of Swellendam of the nineteenth century, but form an important cultural link with the past and are of considerable architectural interest.
Dr. Mary Cook has succeeded in piecing together the history of the tuishuise from scanty evidence. In 1832 the whole piece of land on which both the tuishuise and The Cottage stand was granted by the Government to O. W. J. Falck. Falck built the charming little house now known as The Cottage for his own use on the lower portion of the land and sold the rest in 1836 to the vendue-master Jan Ferdinand Bam, who in turn sold it to Christoffel Coetree. In about 1845 Joseph Barry bought the land from Coetzee’s estate. Being an astute businessman, Barry immediately appreciated the value of this land so close to the Church and built a few tuishuise on the upper portion of it.
After Joseph Barry’s death his grand-nephew and successor John Joseph Barry acquired the remainder of the land in about 1867 and built some more tuishuise on the lower portion.
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Construction Date: 1832
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