#164. Lament the passing of the historic Rissik Street Post Office that was almost all but destroyed by a fire on Sunday night. I was in Cape Town at the time admiring the Stellenbosch winelands, thinking about the Dutch and how lucky they must have considered themselves when they landed in some of the most beautiful landscape on earth. Joburg doesn’t make the news in that city.

Risski Street Post Office by Victor Dlamini for The Daily Maverick

SA’s newest smart online news source The Daily Maverick (still for people with brains and money) captured some dramatic images of the building in flames. To see more of them click here.

Said to be “the second to oldest building” in the city  according to Joburg’s website — the Rissik Street Post Office goes back to 1897. It was designed by designed by Sytze Wierda, President Paul Kruger’s architect. It has been vacant since the Post Office left the building in 1996.

Ironically I came across a great article on the architectural history of  the post office that carried this intro on August 11, 2008: “Is there finally light at the end of the tunnel for the Rissik Street Post Office …” It’s alight alright.

The city has been reporting that the fire destroyed the building just days before a scheduled meeting into tenders for its redevelopment.

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