This grand old Katong mansion, sold to a private company for $9m, isn't designated for conservation. It has one anxious heritage group harping on this theme
By Ng Tze Yong
December 31, 2006
THE imposing house at 23 Amber Road has seen better days.
The 'Butterfly House', with its unique crescent-shaped verandah, is the forgotten cousin of Singapore's grand dames - the Raffles Hotel, Goodwood Park Hotel and Stamford House.
All were designed by Regent Alfred Bidwell, one of Singapore's most famous architects in colonial days.
The house was sold to a private company for about $9 million in August this year, a property search by The New Paper has revealed.
It's not clear what plans the new owner has for the house.
When The New Paper tried to interview the new owner - a company with an office near the Farrer Park MRT station, an official of the company declined to comment.
Now a group of Katongites fear the house may be demolished as it has not been designated for conservation by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).
BULLDOZERS COMING
They have formed a group called Historic Architecture Rescue Plan (Harp). Its 20-odd members - 'ordinary people who have no knowledge of architectural terms' - call themselves rescuers of old buildings.
'It's not a good sign. The bulldozers are coming soon,' said Mr Terrence Hong, 26, an undergraduate and a founding member of Harp.
'We share a passion for preserving our past. We want to give heritage buildings a voice.'
On Christmas Eve, Harp sent out an e-mail petition, complete with the e-mail addresses of President SR Nathan and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, urging Singaporeans to save the house.
'There is no way you can look at this house and not take a second look. You travel back in time 100 years, and go 'wow...',' said Madam Helen Khoo, a 72-year-old retiree.
SEMI-CIRCULAR VERANDAH
Waves once lapped at the house's backyard. The 'butterfly' - the house's semi-circular verandah - was designed to catch the sea breeze.
But after reclamation, the sweeping sea view has been replaced by condominiums and the East Coast Parkway.
The house used to belong to the prominent Cashin family.
Cashin Street, off North Bridge Road, was named after Mr Joseph Cashin, a lawyer's clerk who made his fortune investing in legal opium farms in the 1880s. It was just one of about 400 properties he came to own island-wide.
A Chinese family lived in the house but moved out a few years ago. It has been vacant since.
When The New Paper visited the house last week, trays of oranges, Sprite cans and incense paper - offerings to the spirits - had been left all around the 1,095 sq m compound, about the size of four basketball courts.
'This magnificent house has become a part of every Katongite,' said long-time Katong resident Miss Irene Low, a 35-year-old scientist.
'But it's not just about Katong. It's about Singapore.'
'We're not silly people being nostalgic about the past,' added Mr Hong.
'How many of us have gone back to the house we were born in only to find that it is gone?'
He believes that if the Government wants to keep Singaporeans in Singapore, it must keep their places of childhood.
'HDB flats and shopping centres are not going to make us stay,' he said. 'We need to remember the places we played in as kids.'
But saving houses isn't easy.
'Conservation is an integral part of our city planning,' said a URA spokesman, but it is done on a highly selective basis.'
The URA uses a 'win-win approach' to balance the owner's desire to realise the economic potential of his property and society's wish to preserve the past.
'Based on this pragmatic approach, we have carefully evaluated the house and will not be conserving it,' said the URA spokesman.
URA added, however, that it 'welcomes' the new owner to a discussion to consider alternatives.
Architecture professor Chan Yew Lih, of the National University of Singapore, believes that the 'Butterfly House' is 'worthy of conservation'.
'It is one of the few remaining seaside houses that the elite of old used as weekend getaways from the crowded city,' she said.
She suggests turning the house into a museum, inn or multi-family housing.
Mr Hong said that while saving old buildings may not make dollars and cents, their social value is priceless.
'They are the storehouses of our memories and our identity,' he said. 'Can anyone say our national identity is less valuable than, say, $800 psf.'
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