HISTORY

EVERT OPSTAL RESTAURANT is located on an exceptional property in Durbanville, Cape Town that dates back to approximately 1680. The property is arguably one of the oldest historically significant buildings in the Durbanville area and one of the first properties to be sold by the Dutch East India Company in the Durbanville area during this era.

The restaurant is named after EVERT Von Guinea who was a slave from Guinea in West Africa that arrived in the Cape of Good Hope on the ship Hasselt in 1658.

In 1659 EVERT Von Guinea was sold to Governor Jan van Riebeeck, the founding father of our nation. EVERT was eventually set free by Van Riebeeck in 1669 which allowed him the right as a Free Burgher to farm for his own account, to lease property and to acquire slaves of his own.

EVERT used the opportunity to immediately buy his wife Anna from her owner to reunite his family. He further acquired the rights of this property of 60 morgen, from the VOC or Dutch East India Company, on the loan hold system and the family started a new life as vegetable farmers. 

EVERT built a fortified building using “koffieklip”  (stone from the area) and clay in an effort to protect a fountain on the property that was needed to water his crops. This structure is believed to form part of the middle section of the current restaurant site.

EVERT prospered as a successful farmer and provided fruit and vegetables to the way station of the VOC trade route between the Netherlands and the East Indies.

The property was first proclaimed a farm in 1710 and named EVERSDALE. 

EVERSDALE farm was sold to one Hendrik Eksteen in 1712 who built the first homestead (a T-shaped traditional Cape Dutch style home) as well as other buildings on the premises.  Transfer documents to Eksteen indicate the source of the Kuils River in a well in the cellar of the house.  

The farm was then sold to Gysbert Verwey in 1722 and the transfer documents were signed by Ryk Tulbagh, Registrar of Deeds at that time.

Later owners of the farm EVERSDALE included Johannes Louw (1764), Pieter Joosten (1803), Jacobus Wynand Louw (1815), The Schabort Family by means of the wife of Jacobus Louw (1855).  In 1973 the farm was acquired by the Marais family and by means of excellent research and building skills the original buildings were restored – click here to read a magazine article published in SARIE MARAIS magazine on 26 March 1975.

Parts of EVERT’s fort were retained and later converted into a wine cellar, then rezoned for general business and upgraded to become the first restaurant in the area.

The suburb EVERSDAL where the property is located derived its name from the history of the farm EVERSDALE.

HISTORY