Rosettenville was founded in 1886 by the Jewish pioneer, Leo (or Levin) Rosettenstein, whom it is named after. Rosettenstein arrived in South Africa from East Prussia and surveyed the land and sold stands after gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand.^[2][3][4] The area was subsequently developed by his son, A. V. (Ally) Rosettenstein.^[2] Some roads are named after his family members. The area began as a refuge for Johannesburg’s elites looking to escape the chaos and noise of the newly minted mining town. By the 1920s the suburb had become home to a working class population of English and Afrikaans speaking South Africans. For much of its history the area maintained a largely “white” demographic profile, as the Group Areas Act did not allow for legal racially mixed residential areas