House of Tan Yeok Nee, Singapore
Copyright © Timothy Tye.
House of Tan Yeok Nee
207 Clemenceau Avenue, Singapore 239925
House of Tan Yeok Nee, formerly the Old Salvation Army Headquarters, is regarded the one of the four grand mansions of 19th Century Singapore. It is the biggest, and today, it is the only one still standing. It occupies 2000 square meters of land on Clemenceau Avenue, where it meets Penang Road. The mansion has been carefully restored in keeping to its original design, while at the same time, contemporary facilities are incorporated to make it suitable for modern usage.
House of Tan Yeok Nee is a Teochew-style mansion. The structure exhibits the balance of Ying and Yang, and the five elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth. Tan Yeok Nee is a Chaozhou-born businessman. He built the mansion in 1885. Arriving penniless in Singapore, he rose to great wealth though engagement in different trades including textile, pepper, spices, and even in the then legal opium and liquor trades.
House of Tan Yeok Nee is just one of two surviving Chinese mansions in Singapore; the other is River House at Clarke Quay. Tan Yeok Nee lived for most of his life in this house. He outlived all his sons, and so when he died, the house passed down to his eight grandsons.
At the turn of the 20th Century, when the Singapore-Johor Bahru railway line was being built, the house was acquired by the Tank Road Station Master. Then the house passed to the Anglican church in 1912, which used it as a Home for Eurasian girls. The Salvation Army had the longest use of the house, as its headquarters from 28 May 1938 until 1991, when the Salvation Army moved its headquarters to Bishan. The latest owner is the Wing Tai Group, which spent S$1.2 million to restore it, and now it is occupied by the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business as its Asian campus.
