The suburb was founded on one of the original farms on the Witwatersrand, after a strip of land was sold from the farm Doornfontein.[2]: 158 It originates around 1896.[3] The suburb is possibly named after a daughter of the Lorentz family.[2]: 157 Other sources are Judith Cornelia Estresia, wife of the original farmer owner F.C. Bezuidenhout.[3] It had a terminus for the Johannesburg tramway network on the corner of Ascot Road and First Street.[2]: 157
For much of the twentieth century, along with Yeoville, it established itself as a hub for middle-class Jewish residents. These residents had usually arrived with earlier waves of Jewish migration from Europe and had established social and financial security in their adopted home.[4]
^ abcLeyds, Gerald Anton (1964). A History of Johannesburg: The Early Years. Nasional Boekhandel. p. 318.
^ abRaper, Peter E.; Moller, Lucie A.; du Plessis, Theodorus L. (2014). Dictionary of Southern African Place Names. Jonathan Ball Publishers. p. 1412. ISBN9781868425501.