Ditsong Sammy Marks Museum
Bronkhorstspruit Road, Donkerhoek, Pretoria, South Africa
Sammy Marks arrived in South Africa with a case of silver knives as his only valuable possession, and became one of the first entrepreneurs, playing a significant role in mining, industrial and agricultural development in the country. Ninety eight percent of the household contents in Sammy Marks Museum originally belonged to the Marks family. Sammy Marks got an Italian artist to paint the walls of his mansion 'to look like satin'. The paintings in the billiard room were done on silk and pasted on the ceiling. Zwartkoppies Hall is the Victorian mansion where businessman and entrepreneur Sammy Marks and his family lived from 1885 to 1909, after which it became a weekend retreat. After his death his widow and children inhabited it until the death of the last one in 1978. No members of the family then wished to live at Zwartkoppies permanently - by now an ageing, deteriorating structure. A suitable tenant had to be found. It was offered as old age home, school, army, hotel...