The decline of a General Store

Het Kruispad Winkel over the years 1970 - 2018

If you travel along Route 62 from Montagu to Barrydale in the Little Karoo, South Africa, and you are observant you will pass this unusual double -storeyed flat-roofed building slightly to the side of the road. It must have been on a crossroad at one time. Mention it to any regular traveller and they’ll know immediately what you are talking about. Today it is in a terrible state of decay and without its roof, doomed to oblivion. What a great pity. Another historic building bites the dust.

According to James Walton's book, Double-storeyed, flat-roofed buildings of the rural Cape, it stands close to an uitspan or outspan ( a place where wagons out-spanned in the old days) and where travellers halted for a rest and refreshment. A small community grew up to provide food, repairs to wagons, shoeing for horses, postal services and other facilities. Petrol became available when the motor car appeared on the scene
The building is two rooms deep. In the front was a winkel (shop), butchery and petrol pump. At the back was the smithy and stable. The upper story is divided into four rooms which could be reached by an outside wooden staircase on the front of the building. These rooms provided accommodation for weary travellers needing an overnight stay. The building bears the date 1921 and the pediment the initials JS. Although the facade presents seemingly symmetrical features, closer examination indicates that the window frames were added to an existing building, probably much older.

I first encountered this building in the 1970’s in my quest to find suitable material for my paintings. I specialise in painting small town shops and general dealer stores. Today these old time general stores have all but disappeared, having been replaced by branded petrol one-stops along the highway. In the 1970’s it was a fully functioning general store with a petrol pump. I still remember stopping and buying a packet of chips and a cooldrink.

Kruispad as I saw and painted it in the 1970's

Kruispad painted by artist John Kramer in 1994

Kruispad painted by artist John Kramer in 1997
Every time we went on a trip along the R62 I would stop at Kruispad to see how my favourite building was doing. At various stages the colour scheme or lettering on the facade had changed. Then one year I noticed that the stairway had fallen down. On a subsequent trip it was the turn of the the petrol pumps.Gone. Eventually at some point in the 1990’s the doors closed for the last time and the building itself started to deteriorate.
In 2013 the roof and a wall in one corner collapsed. The last time I went passed was in February 2018. It’s still there but slowly crumbling and oneday will be no more than a pile of red dust.

Reference: Double-storeyed, flat-roofed buildings of the rural Cape.
Author James Walton.
First published in 1993 by Saayman & Weber
Isbn 0 7971 0043 1