PDF《TIONG BAHRU HERITAGE TRAIL》

29 acres has been closed about

16 years. It is well taken care of. It has its joss houses and priests. The ground is in good order and is on undulating clay and laterite hills. Carrington went on to add that the new Chinese Burial Ground or '

Teong Baru'

had been in use for

16 years (since 1859) and … was evidently made as an extension of the '

Teong Lama'

, and like that, it is on undu- lating hills of clay and laterite. There is plenty of ground to spare for burials for the next ten years. The graves are made five to six feet deep. About

500 bodies per year are buried here. ? our heritage TIONG BAHRU HERITAGE TRAIL Courtesy of mandy lee

04 05 Thecemeteriesanditstemple(the'

josshouse'

referred to by the British) were known to the Chinese as the Heng San Teng Burial Ground and was established in

1828 by See Hood Kee (alsospelt'

SeeHootKee'

,'

SiHooKeh'

,'

SitHoot Kee'

or'

SiHoodKee'

),aMalacca-bornPeranakan businessmanandcommunityleader.See(1793C 1847)was, at the time, the wealthiest Hokkien leader in Singapore. He helped to found the Thian Hock Keng Temple in Amoy Street in

1839 and also served as President of the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple in Malacca. Tan Beng Swee (1828C1884),whowaslistedasoneofthetrus- tees of the cemetery and temple in 1875, was the famous son of Tan Kim Seng (1805C1864), a Malacca-born Peranakan merchant. The temple, known as Heng San Teng, was dedicated to Tua Pek Kong (literally '

Grand Old Man'

), a deity widely worshipped in Southeast Asia for protection against storms and other disasters. It was originally built to serve the old cemetery (Teong Lama) and was the main gathering place for the Hokkien community until the establishment of the Thian Hock Keng Temple. Hood Kee Street, which ran parallel to Kim Ching Street, was named after See. Both these streets were obliterated by the construc- tion of the Seng Poh Road Market. Heng San Teng was unfortunately destroyed by a fire in May 1992, along with all its temple records. Did You Know? Tan Kim Seng, the father of Tan Beng Swee, was a generous and charitable man. In 1857, he contributed $13,000 toward the building of Singapore'

s first municipal reservoir and waterworks. For this act, he was honoured by a fountain placed at Fullerton Square in 1882. The Tan Kim Seng Fountain was moved to Esplanade Park in 1925. EARLY SETTLEMENT IN TIONG BAHRU Before the early 20th century, the area around the present Tiong Bahru was largely unde- veloped. Most of the land along the length of Tiong Bahru Road was used as farmland or cemeteries. After the turn of the century, some enterprising businessmen began to build houses and shophouses along the road, with one cluster at the junction of Tiong Bahru and HendersonRoads,andasecondclusteratwhat is now Tiong Bahru estate. At the Henderson Road junction, there was also a rubber plantation and rubber processing factory called the Sungei Batu Rubber Factory, which was managed by a man named Poey Keng Seng, who had a house near the factory. There were also palatial bungalows commis- sioned by well-known businessman Ong Sam Leong (1857C1918), who built an enormous house in Tiong Bahru in 1905. His son-in-law Puey Yean Chuan did likewise. The other cluster of buildings, situated at the junction of Outram Road, was first developed around

1905 when Wee Kay Siang (1858C 1925), a prominent businessman after whom Kay Siang Road off Tanglin Road was named, built three shophouses along Sit Wah Road. In 1907,SeeEweBoon,abankerwhodiedin1909, also built shophouses along Sit Wah Road, but nearer to the Outram Road junction. Between