Tooronga (G 9)

Name:Tooronga

Origins of Cleveland
There's some dispute as to how the suburb got its name, and at times in its early days, it was even referred to as "Tooronga". Anna Smith in her Johannesburg Street Names gives several possibilities.
It could have been named after American president Stephen Grover Cleveland, in office from 1885 to 1889 (and again from 1893 to 1897). An American engineer, Harry Cleveland Perkins, could possibly have given his middle name to the suburb.

Mine manager WT Hallimond could have offered the name based on Cleveland College in Darlington, England, where he was educated. He was mine manager from 1888 until around 1911. The nearby Yorkshire Cleveland Hills is another possibility.

But the most likely possibility is that an Australian, Florence Richards, who owned the land and in 1907 applied for permission to lay out the township of Cleveland, named the suburb after a street in her home town of Melbourne. It seems that at first the names Cleveland and Tooronga (also a street in Melbourne) were used interchangeably. Tooronga was dropped at some stage, and given to one of the streets in the suburb. Several of the other street names have an Australian connection - Myrnong, another street in Melbourne, and Dandenong, a town in Victoria.


Joburg's first police station
Johannesburg's first police station was in Kort Street, between Market and Commissioner Streets, according to Anna Smith in Johannesburg Firsts. This site was used in the 1890s to build the Gaiety Theatre which was demolished in 1972.
The barracks for the officers were at the bottom of Market Square, while the barracks for the mounted police were in Kazerne in Bree Street, west of the CBD.

Soon after this a police station was built in 1887 in Bree Street, on the corner of Simmonds Street. A police station still stands on this site, but it is believed to be a slightly later building, now used as a photo shop. The present building is old although no date is available for its construction. It retains its thick walls and tall ceilings, and its façade is striking in red and white.

http://www.joburgnews.co.za/2003/feb/feb4_police.stm

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