Unusually for this arid region, it was built astride a river which has been cited as the reason for the irregular street grid.

[4] The town has a substantial number of well-preserved houses and public buildings of Victorian and Edwardian Karoo style, with additions of verandahs dating from the 1920s.

The Dutch Reformed Church building, the spiritual if not the physical centre around which the town evolved, dates from 1847, with a tower completed in 1909.

The naming of the town originated in the desire of the townsfolk to honour the new Governor of the Cape, Sir Peregrine Maitland, who took office in 1844.

[4] It was a resort town for European aristocratic patients of lung diseases such as whooping cough and tuberculosis in the 1800s due to its clean air and mineral rich waters.