Athlone Institute Trust crest

Heritage & Buildings

The places this story happened in

A hundred years of work left its mark on Paarl: church halls, a building in Breda Street, a school, a training college, a music centre and a radio station.

Each place below carries what we can show and what we cannot. Where a rights-cleared photograph exists it appears with its credit. Where the record is blank, the gap is marked and open to contributions from families, churches and alumni.

A Paarl church of the era in which the five founding congregations met. Not itself a founding church building.
A Paarl church of the era in which the five founding congregations met. Not itself a founding church building.Credit: ECSequeira, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

1926

The five founding churches

Paarl, Western Cape

Five Paarl congregations pooled their people and their money to found an institute for education.

The Institute began in the church halls of Paarl. Five congregations carried the founding effort, and the first funds were raised in small amounts across the town. The Trust's own account of the founding — including the sum raised and the manner of its collection — is recorded on the story pages and is still to be confirmed against the churches' minute books.

Source: Athlone Institute celebrated founding in 1926 at AGM — Paarl Post, 29 November 2024

A gap in the record

No rights-cleared photograph of The Breda Street building is held yet.

Do you have a photograph or document from this time?

From the 1930s

The Breda Street building

Breda Street, Paarl

The Institute's own building, home to its six pillars of work.

For decades the Institute's work ran out of its own premises in Breda Street: classes, meetings, training and community service under one roof. Photographs of the building through the years are one of the largest gaps in the record — the Trust is inviting family albums, programmes and church records to fill it.

Source: Athlone Institute celebrated founding in 1926 at AGM — Paarl Post, 29 November 2024

A gap in the record

No rights-cleared photograph of Noorder-Paarl High School is held yet.

Do you have a photograph or document from this time?

Mid-century

Noorder-Paarl High School

Paarl, Western Cape

A secondary school that grew out of the Institute's educational work.

The Institute's founders wanted secondary education within reach of Paarl's families. Noorder-Paarl High School belongs to that effort. Documentary photographs of its early years are not yet in the Trust's hands.

A gap in the record

No rights-cleared photograph of Athlone Training College is held yet.

Do you have a photograph or document from this time?

Until 1993

Athlone Training College

Paarl, Western Cape

Teacher training for the region, closed in the restructuring of the colleges of education.

The training college prepared generations of teachers before the national restructuring that closed most colleges of education in the 1990s. The wider story of those closures is documented in published research listed in the references.

Source: Unpacking the past: The ambivalent legacy of colleges of education — Yesterday and Today (SASHT), 2022

A concert in Paarl. Illustrative of the town's music life, not a Frank Pietersen Music Centre performance.
A concert in Paarl. Illustrative of the town's music life, not a Frank Pietersen Music Centre performance.Credit: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

1980s to today

Frank Pietersen Music Centre

Paarl, Western Cape

A music school that became one of Paarl's best-known cultural institutions.

The centre's history and its contribution to the community are the subject of a Stellenbosch University masters thesis. Its concerts remain a fixture of the Paarl calendar, and the Institute's bursary ceremonies have been held on its stage.

Source: Die Frank Pietersen Musieksentrum: Historiese agtergrond en ontwikkelingsbydrae tot die gemeenskap — Stellenbosch University (MMus thesis), March 2013

A gap in the record

No rights-cleared photograph of Radio KC 107.7 is held yet.

Do you have a photograph or document from this time?

1995 to today

Radio KC 107.7

Paarl, Western Cape

The community radio station serving the Boland.

Radio KC broadcasts across the Boland from Paarl. The Institute's account of its part in the station's founding is recorded on the story pages and is still to be confirmed.

Source: Radio KC comes of age this year — Netwerk24, 22 September 2017

A gap in the record

No rights-cleared photograph of Athlone House of Strength is held yet.

Do you have a photograph or document from this time?

Today

Athlone House of Strength

Paarl, Western Cape

A shelter and support service carrying the Athlone name in Paarl today.

The House of Strength works with women and families in Paarl and is profiled by the Western Cape Women's Shelter Movement.

Source: Athlone House of Strength — Home — Athlone House of Strength

Paarl seen across the valley — the town where the Athlone Institute was founded in 1926.
Paarl seen across the valley — the town where the Athlone Institute was founded in 1926.Credit: Andresdewet, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Throughout

Paarl and the Berg River valley

Paarl, Western Cape

The town the Institute has served for a hundred years.

Every part of this story happens in Paarl: the churches, the schools, the college, the music centre and the station. These are openly licensed photographs of the town and valley, shown as context rather than as records of the Institute itself.

Do you have photographs of these places?

Buildings, classrooms, concerts, ceremonies, programmes, certificates — anything that shows these places as they were. The Trust will credit every contributor and return every original.

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