Meller House in Pinetown, the original homestead of early pioneer Henry James Meller.
Image: Facebook
The old picture today is a very early picture of Pinetown showing Meller House, the home of Victorian settler and early Pinetown pioneer Henry James Meller. It comes from the website Durban History and Stories.
Photographer Tumi Pakkies and I were unsure whether we would be able to find the modern day equivalent as the only address we had was Meller Road, a continuation of School Road on the north side of Old Main Road. But there at number 6 was a big sign saying Meller House. However a massive wall completely shielded anything inside it.
We eventually shot the today picture from Greathead Lane (the house is on the corner) with Pakkies standing on a large pile of rubble and using my shoulders as support to try and see over the wall. I suspect Greathead lane is behind the hedge at the back of the original picture. But today it is the entrance to the property which seems to be a collection of small businesses.
To add to the confusion, Meller is sometimes spelled Mellor in historical documents, although the street is Meller, and it’s written this way on the man’s grave stone.
Meller was born in 1808, it is not sure where, and arrived in the region in the 1840s. He is remembered for his public service and as an author. He was the resident magistrate for the Durban district during the mid-19th century. He was also the commanding officer of the Durban Rifle Guard. He is particularly famous in local lore for hosting Durban's first ball in 1853 to help settle a squabble between warring social factions.
He documented early colonial life and authored Notes on Natal (originally published in 1851), which served as a critical handbook for new settlers.
Meller House today, taken from Greatheaad Lane.
Image: Tumi Pakkies
He is also the author of the literary oddity Nicotiana; Or, The Smoker's and Snuff-Taker's Companion published in London by Effingham Wilson in 1832. In the rather flamboyant Nicotiana, he set out to gather the history of tobacco, its cultivation, supposed medical qualities, and the laws surrounding its importation and manufacture.
But it was as an early Pinetown settler that he is best remembered, living in the house until his death in 1881. He was buried in the historic St Andrew's Church Cemetery (today the Kings Road Cemetery) in Pinetown. His wife Emily 1843-1922 is buried alongside him.
The graveyard also tells the sad story of presumably two of his children Eleanor Dorothea Meller 1876-1880 and Hilda Maud Meller 1880-1880. Another May Martha Meller was born 1867 and died 1938.