The District Six Museum opens in a former Methodist church
The District Six Museum opened in the old Central Methodist Mission church on Buitenkant Street with Streets: Retracing District Six, an exhibition planned for two weeks that never closed.
Photo: Jim.henderson · CC BY-SA 4.0
On 10 December 1994 the District Six Museum opened in the former Central Methodist Mission church at 25A Buitenkant Street, on the edge of what had been District Six. The District Six Museum Foundation had been formed in 1989, after the Hands Off District Six conference of 1988.
The opening exhibition, Streets: Retracing District Six, was meant to run for two weeks. It never closed. Seventy-five original street signs hung in columns behind a large street map of the district. The map on the floor, where former residents traced and marked their family homes, became the museum's best-known feature. The museum became a meeting place for families forced out after the area was declared white in 1966, and it has supported their land restitution claims. In 2002 it expanded into the Homecoming Centre at 15 Buitenkant Street.
Why it matters
The museum turned the memories of former residents into a public record of District Six. It remains central to how Cape Town remembers forced removals and to the long restitution process.
Where it happened
District Six Museum, 25A Buitenkant Street
The museum building, the former Central Methodist Mission church, where the museum opened and still has its main exhibition. It stands at the western edge of the former District Six, not in the cleared area itself.
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Where it happened Exact site
District Six Museum, 25A Buitenkant Street
The museum building, the former Central Methodist Mission church, where the museum opened and still has its main exhibition. It stands at the western edge of the former District Six, not in the cleared area itself.
