The first public  building was a jailhouse built in November 1887. It doubled up as a hospital, with the prisoners helping with the patients. There was no money for a proper hospitalat that time and one was only built in October 1888 on Hospital Hill in Hillbrow. Johannesburg was not granted proper municipal status, not even in 1895 when it became South Africa's most populated urban center, because Pretoria did not think that Johannesburg would last and believed that the gold would run out like it did in Barberton. They were hoping that all the "uitlanders" (foreigners) would then go home to Britian, Australia, California, Germany, or where ever, and the Boers could live in peace!! Poor Pretoria, how wrong Krugers people were!

The 60 year old mining commissioner, Captain Carl von Brandis had to fulfil the duties of being a "landdrost" (magistrate) too.It was tough on him but Paul Kruger eventually promoted Jan Eloff to the post of mining commissioner and named Von Brandis special landdrost. This guy was a real gentleman and could not find it within himself to punish a woman. Sometimes when he was forced to fine a poor person, he would pay the fine himself! He died in 1903, one of Johannesburgs most loved pioneers.

In July 1889 the world heavyweight boxing championship was to be fought in Johannesburg. Because the police did not allow big gatherings anywhere in town, the big fight was scheduled to be held near Baragwanath, about 10 kilometers from town. The Star, who's name changed from The Eastern Star to The Star on March 29, 1889 was covering the big event. J,R. Couper, the 35 year old local Scots-born heavy weight champion was meeting the 27 year old Wolf Bendoff of London. Couper won in 26 rounds which lasted 30 minutes.  A round was declared every time one of the boxers was knocked down and sometimes they deliberately fell down! Bendoff  one day went into The Star's offices, wanting to fight the then editor, Frances Dormer, who was affectionately known as "big bully". At that stage he was drinking quite heavily, but fortunate for Dormer, he was stopped in time. Couper shot himself in 1897.

ENTERTAINMENT

The first organised entertainment in Johannesburg was in the form of a circus in September 1886. It was the Fillis's Circus, who built a permanent big top of wood and iron in Bree Street in 1889. In 1888  several variety shows were staged at the Trocadero Concert Hall. Also in the same year, Johannesburgers were fortunate enough to watch Verdi's II Travatore at the Theatre Royal - a prefabricated wood-and-iron structure. The theatre was brought to Johannesburg from Durban by ox wagon and placed on the site where His Majesty's Theatre was later built. There was also The Globe, which opened in 1889 with a Gilbert & Sullivan Comic Opera and which later put on Shakespeare plays as well. It did not last long, because in October of that same year it burned down while the patrons stood in the street watching the fire and laying bets on whether the next door bar would burn down too! At that stage there were still no firebrigade in Johannesburg. Finally they did the sensible thing, they "rescued" the liquor just before the bar went up in flames!

On Sundays the cheerful oompah-pah of the Salvation Army brass band attracted up to 400 people in the streets and its music could be heard all through town. The black population loved it. Von Brandis was not very happy about this "big weekly parade they made out of religion" and he wanted to stop the band from performing, but fortunately for the people of Johannesburg, it did not happen. In 1895 General William Booth, the founder of The Salvation Army, came to Johannesburg and he was very well received and even given a civic reception later in 1908.

Johannesburg had a large number of hotels and saloon bars. Trelawney Ansell, a pioneer, wrote in "I followed Gold" of the triumphant entry of the town's first barmaid. Word of her coming had got ahead of her. Tales were being spread of her wonderful beauty, the glorious clothes she wore, the very low cut of her bodices, etc. Special emphasis was also laid on how easily she bestowed her nightly favours - at a price!

The day when the coach arrived with her seated inside, she was loudly cheered and carried shoulder high from the coach to the Billiard room of the Central Hotel. The gave her iced champagne and then forced her to stand on the billiard table. She was dressed in corsets and voluminous drawers edged with plenty of lace - clothing which is considered as highly overdressed today, but at that time was considered "naughty". She was sold to the highest bidder for 150 pounds, while everybody was having fun and champagne flowed like water!

There were a lot of churches too. The Nederduits Hervormde Kerk was ready for Johannesburg's first birthday, and Paul Kruger preached from it's pulpit on that occasion. The Baptists and the Methodists were also established within the first year and Rabbi Joel Rabinowitz founded the first Hebrew congregation in 1887.

The towns first cricket club was established in 1887 and months later The Star recorded that Johannesburg had trashed Pretoria by an innings and 34 runs. This did not improve relations between the two towns, as a rugby team was formed in the same year, and again Johannesburg beat Pretoria! The team was formed to celebrate Queen Victoria's golden jubilee.

A stretch of Simmonds Street, between Commissioner- and Market Streets, became a gathering place whenever something exciting was happening. The big crowds that gathered sometimes, worried the police and they had chains erected across each end of this section of Simmonds Street. For years afterwards Johannesburgers spoke of meeting "between the chains". Hermann Eckstein, the man who was sent to Johannesburg by J.B. Robinson to open a mining office, sometimes stood at his office window, looking down at the crowds. He knew in advance about happenings, and sometimes the crowds were responding to events triggered by him. (Remember he was the guy you met in the first episode who made his million witin his first year in Johannesburg.) He died in 1903 in his country home in Stuttgard, but he left the people of Johannesburg a tremendous legacy - The Hermann Eckstein Park. It comprised 200 acres of freehold ground in the Braamfontein Forest, Parktown, generally known as Sachsenwald. This huge slab of land, now the Zoo and Zoo Lake, was to be held in trust "for the inhabitants of Johannesburg for ever" Corner House later donated the grounds adjacent to the zoo for the War Memorial and War Museum.

In those days the Market Square was the busiest place in town with its coming and going of ox-wagons, carts and pedlars and its untidy array of produce stalls. Prices were quite high in 1886/1887. A slaughtered ox could cost anything up to 80 shillings. In 1887 Stephanus Papenfus ,who just happened to have a brother in the Volksraad , was appointed the town's market master and allowed to make 10 percent on all transactions. (How convenient for him! **S*) Half of one percent was supposed to go to the Gezondheids Comite (Sanitary Board) In the first eight months the turnover was 50 000 pounds, so Papenfus made 5 000 pounds and the Sanitary Board a mere 250 pounds! By the end of 1888 Papenfus was making 3940 a month! As Kruger was to remark: "He earns more than the President!"

The Wanderers Sports grounds were laid out in 1887 in what was called Kruger Park at the north end of town. The townpeople used it as a gathering place for various activities, not only for sport. Kruger spoke to the crowds there and in later years also Jan Smuts, Joseph Chamberlain and Lord Kitchener. It was also where the first car in Johannesburg was exhibited. Kruger had granted the Wanderers a 99-year lease, with the provisio that the public could use it whenever the club was not using it.