This house is named after the avenue of oak trees planted by the first owner, James F Goch, who was born in 1857 in Swellendam. It was designed in 1904 by J.S. Donaldson, with the generous proportions, steeply pitched roof and open veranda favoured in warm colonial climates. James Goch came to the Rand in 1886 and by 1892 he had opened a photographic studio in Pritchard Street, as well as a Watchmakers and Jewellers shop, yet his fortune was made from property deals.