In about 1682, the toolshed was converted into a guesthouse to entertain foreign visitors of the governor, Simon van der Stel.

Similar façades, windows, doors and fanlights can be seen in colonial buildings built in the same period in places such as Amsterdam and Batavia (modern-day Jakarta).

However, the artistic detail of the outside facades, including the sculptures of the infant Mercury and Poseidon drawn from Greek mythology holding the banner on which the emblem of the VOC was emblazoned, are variously attributed to a sculptor Jacobus Leeuwenberg, a Dutchman and sculptor Anton Anreith (1754–1822), a German, both of whom are known to have worked extensively in the Cape in the last quarter of the 18th century.

Shell has speculated on the provenance of a not dissimilar front door to be found at Genadendal, previously WestBrook, the president's Cape Town residence, on the Groote Schuur Estate.

It is documented that the Genadendal door was bought in the early part of the 20th century from the demolished original farmhouse of the Elsenburg farm in Stellenbosch by Cecil John Rhodes for his estate.

Governor Lord Charles Somerset extended the building on both sides to accommodate a ballroom, a magnificent staircase and fireplaces.

After careful excavation, it was discovered that the stucco garlands and other floral decorations and relief work, conforming to the Jones drawings, had remained reasonably intact.

Fagan commissioned Sydney Hunter to recreate the entire balustrade while the wood carvings were executed by the Greek craftsman, Josef Vazirkianzikis.