{"id":12454,"date":"2026-04-23T17:51:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/?page_id=12454"},"modified":"2026-04-23T21:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:36:21","slug":"ditsong-sammy-marks-museum","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ditsong.org.za\/en\/our-museums\/ditsong-sammy-marks-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Ditsong: Sammy Marks Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n <\/span>Sammy Marks Museum<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>[vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_raw_html css=””]JTNDaW1nJTIwc3JjJTNEJTIyaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZkaXRzb25nLm9yZy56YSUyRmVuJTJGd3AtY29udGVudCUyRnVwbG9hZHMlMkYyMDE5JTJGMDklMkZzYW1teS1tYXJrcy5qcGclMjIlMjBzdHlsZSUzRCUyMndpZHRoJTNBJTIwMTAwJTI1JTNCJTIwaGVpZ2h0JTNBJTIwYXV0byUyMiUyRiUzRQ==[\/vc_raw_html][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_column_text css=””]<\/p>\n

Opening Hours<\/h3>\n

Admission Tuesday – Saturday: 07:30 – 16:00 (Except Christmas Day & Good Friday) <\/p>\n

Tour Hours: 10:00, 12:00 and 14:00<\/p>\n

Reach Us<\/h3>\n

Savannah Country Estate, 0081<\/p>\n

Tel:<\/strong> 012 492 5800 \/ 072 159 4057<\/p>\n

Bookings for education programmes: 012 492 5808<\/p>\n

Email:<\/strong> info@ditsong.org.za<\/p>\n

Admission bookings: <\/strong>marks@ditsong.org.za<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_separator color=”black” css=””][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_text_separator title=”About the Museum” css=”” el_class=”heading-4″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text css=””]<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Sammy Marks got an Italian artist to paint the walls of his mansion \u2018to look like satin\u2019. The paintings in the billiard room were done on silk and pasted on the ceiling.<\/p>\n

Zwartkoppies Hall is a Victorian mansion where businessman and entrepreneur Sammy Marks and his family lived from 1885 to 1909, and then it became a weekend retreat. After his death, his widow and children inhabited it until the last one passed away in 1978. After that, no one in the family wished to live at Zwartkoppies permanently \u2013 by now ageing, deteriorating structure. A suitable tenant had to be found. It was offered as a nursing home, school, army, and hotel \u2013 without success.<\/p>\n

In 1980 the National Cultural History and Open-air Museum asked the Marks trust whether it could purchase 40 hectares of Zwartkoppies as a site for an open-air museum.<\/p>\n

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Neill Maisels, the eldest grandson and chairperson of the Trust, explained the conditions of the will and suggested instead that the Museum leases the house and surrounding ground and purchase the contents.<\/p>\n

The Museum did not have enough money to do that. Mendel Kaplan, a Johannesburg businessman, planned to transfer Sammy\u2019s private papers to the UCT and heard about the Museum project. He offered to donate half the money to the museum through his family foundation, and negotiations could continue. Eventually, the Museum opened in November 1986. In March 1989, Zwartkoppies was declared a national monument. In 1995 roughly 73ha surrounding the house, upon which all of the historical buildings are situated, was cut from the rest of the farm and expropriated for sale to the National Cultural History Museum.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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