Doornfontein

Doornfontein ( ) is an inner-city suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, located to the east of the city centre. It is in Region F of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. In the 1930s, it attracted many Jewish immigrants, becoming the main hub for the city's Jewish community. Black African residents, then a minority in the suburb, lived in slum-yards. Under the Slums Clearance Act 1934, the slum-yards were cleared and many residents were relocated to Orlando, Soweto. Since the late 1970s, Doornfontein and other inner-city suburbs of Johannesburg have underdone high levels of white flight to the city's northern suburbs. ==History== The area, whose name means "thorn fountain", was originally the southern part of a farm owned by Frederick Jacobus Bezuidenhout, and was proclaimed a public diggings after the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886. The suburb was laid out in the late 1880s by Thomas Yeo, and became the first residential suburb of Johannesburg. In 1897 the freehold of the suburb was bought by the Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company (JCI), owned by the mining magnate Barney Barnato. The suburb (and Berea) were developed by the company and the district became known as "Millionaire's Row". The JCI also built Norman House, a striking mansion home for Barnato. The property was situated near to the Irene Church with its front entrance on End Street. In his biography of Barnato, Harry Raymond wrote that "as a practical proof of his faith in the permanency of the Gold Fields of the Rand he decided to build a large home for his own dwelling place and tenders were called for its erection." Afterwards the house was the residence of the mining magnate, John Dale Lace. It was subsequently converted into an institution known as Dale Lace house, a residence for senior citizens. The building has since been demolished.

Following the Anglo-Boer War, many of the wealthier residents moved north to Parktown, and Doornfontein, or "Doorie", became home to many Jewish immigrants. In Doornfontein and New Doornfontein, there were nine synagogues, several Talmud Torah and Cheder schools, as well as Jewish organisations. Yiddish was widely spoken and there was a predominantly Eastern European Jewish character and identification with both Zionism and Yiddishkeit. Many of the Jewish residents came from Ferreirasdorp and Marshalltown. Doornfontein Synagogue was completed in 1906 and remains in use. The synagogue has been documented and photographed by David Goldblatt.