| Open - The Mystery of Hillview House |
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| Written by Webmaster | |||
| Wednesday, 09 August 2006 08:37 | |||
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The Mysterious Hillview House that was left to ruins and rumoured to be haunted CHARLES GOH (ABDUCTBOY) FOREWORD CHARLES GOH (ABDUCTBOY) FOREWORD
This article was written some years ago. Hillview House has since been demolished, and has in fact passed from most memories. Looking back over the period of 1 year or more that I have followed on the scent of uncovering the mystery of the Hillview House , I learnt that too many things have been steeped in mystery and urban legends when it shouldn't be. Landmarks, like human, carry with them the memories of a better time when life was good. I cannot vouch for the authencity of the information I found in my research. In setting out to unravel this mystery I was merely trying to solve and de-myth an urban legend of purportedly one of the most haunted houses in Singapore . I do apologise if I had made an unintentional error in my assumptions but I must say that at best these are based on my personal research and observations. I have no intention to bring back past memories if they had been sad ones. As I engage myself more in Paranormal Activities, I hope to discover more of the old world, discarded memories forgotten by a generation obsessed with money making, pubbing, good looks, monetary pursuit and corporate ladder climbing. I seek to preserve the true memories of people and places before they vanishes off the face of this planet. In Singapore , where the urban landscape is constantly changing, whether people travel from Point A to Point B only just to get to their point of destination. Will anyone pause to look, and see, and wonder about the beauty and wonder of a certain place, or people before they pass on or get demolish? I seek the people and places with memories.
For what is left in the end, after everything is gone. UNCOVERING THE MYSTERY OF HILLVIEW House Moving Into Hillview Estate The date was sometime in June 1999. It was an overcast sky when a young couple moved into Hillview Estate. They were young, they had a beautiful dog, and a very beautiful home.
The condo was Hillbrooks Condominium, and theirs was on the 8 th floor overlooking what was the back of Guilin Hill. The study room overlooked this magnificent greenery sight. “This is where I will place my computer”, he thought.
View from my window. The blue rooftop of Hillview House could just be seen with the naked eye, somewhere above the water tank tower in the center of this photograph. Such was my spirits when 1 week later, my first, my very own computer arrived. The internet was the ‘in' thing then, I felt like a nomad in the desert then with my lack of computer skills and knowledge. I only started out in computer and using Microsoft Word back in 1998. Before that, the only software I used was WordStar 6, and Macintosh was considered the highest-end computer programme in Singapore . That's how much a well-frog I was. So you can imagine my enthusiasm… new home, new computer… now to get into the internet and see what the craze is about! I had my younger brother besides me, a computer geek who read software and programmes as often as I read magazines while sitting in the toilet seat. “First you need an email address.” Ann Tat my brother said. “We will use Yahoo free email. What name would you like?”
I pondered, then smiled. I had been having weird… you might called it paranormal experiences ever since I was a kid. You name it, I have it. I had dreams that came true, out of body experiences, visions of future, see ‘ghosts' or alien (those big eyed type) which I thought to be a skeleton, hear voices when there is no one around.. Had bouts of telepathy…. you know what I mean. When I was about 26 years old, I picked up a book titled Communion, published in 1987 about people being abducted by aliens. I was intrigued by the photo in the front cover. Though I couldn't say why. Later on when I started to ready other books of western alien abduction, I found myself being able to relate when I went through when I was younger, to what was written in the book. It was like nothing I ever read in a Asian book or seen from an Asian perspective. I knew what I want my email address to be. “abductedboy”, I said, ‘Give me abductedboy.” My brother tried but shook his head after a couple of seconds. “It's taken.” He said. “Try another.” I tried abductboy. It was available. And thus was birthed my first email address This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . It was about that time when I had my first digital camera. A trusty old Olympus C-860L digital camera. It is a dinosaur on the market now, but at that time it meant the world to me, and I still use it even now. It was then that I started taking pictures of activities and places around me. Weird pictures . Things started cropping up in them that shouldn't. Orbs they were called. People had a logical explanation for these orbs. “They are just dust or moisture droplets.” They would say, “Just clean you lens they will be gone.” Well, they weren't gone. In fact, I believe they are a natural occurring phenomena in digital photography. I read that it all had to do with that technology called CCD. I read that this incredible technology that resides in our little camera is the same technology that gave the Hubble telescope the ability to capture scene of stars and other worlds many eons away. So it no wonder that so many ‘artefacts' are captured within a single capture. Well, that could explain maybe about 90% of what I thought I saw in my photo, but they are still that 10% that just define any logical explanation. I started to throw an un-mathematical assumption into the equation. I had always been quite emphatic. I felt greatly for the environment, the buildings, the trees, and the people around me. So much that I believe at times that I can feel them, and hear their emotions. Somehow that emphatic power of mine channelled to the camera I was holding, and created those anomaly.
I once just chuck my camera inside the leg of a pant that was hanging beside. The flash that got reflected off the pants interior looked like some bird man with very human-like eyes.
I leave the judgement up to you. But back to my story. And so began the changing point in my life that led me to know Kenny, who then together with me, went on to discover the SPI website. I left SPI in June this year when our Ideals, Goals and Visions on how SPI would be carried forward differ. I found his little webpage on the net, and started emailing him some of my photos. It wasn't the SPI website then. He was intrigued. After a few correspondence we met up one day as I pick him up from his office at International Plaza . At our first meeting I was introduced to the Hillview House . “so you live in Hillview area?” I remembered Kenny exclaimed. “Then you must have seen the Hillview House.” I replied in the negative. I was a newbie in Hillview. I haven't even walked my dog up those beautiful houses that line up before my windows yet. “Let's go then, let me show it to you!” And so half hour later, I drove up that incredible slope of Jalan Dermawan and first lay my eyes upon the gates of Hillview House .
“It's has been called many names.” Kenny said. “Some call it the Blue House because the roof tiles are blue; others called it the Green House because of the huge greenery that kept it from our roving eyes.
The gates of Hillview House . There was no house number. Further search in Street Directories did not reveal any house number or even an indication there was a house there.
The steep slope up to the Hillview House. The gate was padlocked and tried as we could to peer inside, we could not see beyond the bend. That curved ahead. “So why was this place deserted?” I asked innocently. “Don't know.” Kenny replied. “That's the mystery about this place. You have walk 2 minutes up a winding road before you reach the house. From the pictures I saw on the internet, it was 1 big double-storied house sitting in a land big enough or a condo to be built.” He paused as I pressed my face against the cold bars of the gate. “From what I read, the House was under renovation halfway when something happened and the renovation was stopped and left halfway. The House now stands with its renovation materials still lying around.” “Why?” I had to ask. “Don't know.” Kenny replied. “There are many stories floating around in the internet, but the most famous one was that it belonged to Cycle & Carriage Chairman. But the lady whom he bought the house for, accidentally fell while supervising the renovations and died.” Kenny then looked at me. “Since then the House has been abandoned because the Owner was too sad to return to this place.” I left that day, a changed man. I remembered in the years that I have been driving I had passed by many houses and gates that seemed forlorn, forgotten. As I stared at Hillview House gates I realised that there are many such houses abandoned in Singapore . Each carrying with them their own stories, lost in the passage of Time. How many years must go by before the actual stories get forgotten and they get steeped in the myths and urban legends that grew up among the newer group of Singaporeans that came and went like the tide of the sea? I don't know. But I always believe that One should always try to preserve the legacy of Oneself. So many memories, so many sights and sounds that remain trapped in the minds of old people and places that when they pass on, they get forgotten, and are lost to Man.
Yes, the sight of those gates set me thinking. A lot. I was a changed man that day. But then I was busy with my new work, and soon forgot about that place, though each night as I looked from window at the green expanse and wondered. Getting Started on the Scent I was in the construction industry. A period of time occurred also when the economic situation in Singapore wasn't that good, and then SARS hit Singapore . I found myself with quite abit of free time in my hands, and started reading up on stories from the Internet and other sources. I read and remembered the Hillview House .
By the time I turned off the computer that night, I was determined to devote the rest of my free time to solving this mystery….. the Mystery of the Hillvew House.
It is owned by a British Military officer During WW2 the hillview House was previously owned by a British Military officer who was believed to be of a high rank. Thus being able to have a clear view of Bukit Timah area was crucial.. After the war, the British couple returned back to UK....It was also believed that they have the title deed and the URA couldn't do anything to demolish or whatever...(or maybe it is located too near MINDEF)... Decades later... someone bought the House and began the renovation works...As u can see......the renovation was done only half-way..( i doubt even half! )...I think something must have happened......But i didn't know what that could be......
The mentally-ill mother stabbed her 3 kids to death.. There was a family of 5 living in the House. One day, the father was sent to work overseas, leaving his 3 boys and his wife in the House. Once, the 3 kids were playing hide and seek in the House. One was the seeker; the other two were to hide. One boy hid behind the cupboard, the other below the bed. The mother had a bit of a mental illness. She killed the two boys who were supposed to hide. The weapon was a knife. Having stained with blood, she went to the bathroom to clean herself. The poor seeker, having hearing sounds from the bathroom, went into the bathroom. He saw the horrible sight of his mother cleaning the blood-stained knife but before he could run away, he was killed and his body fell into the bath-tub.
It is believed the house was owned by the Cycle & Carriage Chairman. Rumours have it that he bought it for his mistress. The house was still under-going renovations at that time when he 1st bought it. The mistress went up to the roof-top balcony to oversee the renovation works. However tragedy struck and she accidentally fell off from the balcony and died. The renovations stopped after that and the house was abandoned till now.
Following The Scent Scent 1 - The British Military Officer from WW2. We were told that “the hillview House was previously owned by a British Military officer who was believed to be of a high rank. Thus being able to have a clear view of Bukit Timah area was crucial”. From history books and internet archives, we knew that Hillview Estate was used by the military during WW2 for a time. But it wasn't the British that used Hillview Estate, it was the Australian. From various internet sources, I knew that Hillview Estate became for a while to be the Australian HQ, led by General Gordon Bennet, Commanding Officer of the Australian Forces, for meeting up with his various brigade commanders. Could it be that Hillview House could have been occupied by the Australian during that time? A further check dispel this thought. The HQ in Hillview was located near the Bukit Timah Road Police Station. I asked a most reliable source: My father, a taxi driver since his youth. He told me that the old Bukit Police Station was located at the place where now Beauty World Plaza stands. It was too far away to have been the HQ.
At any rate, such archival information could hardly be verified by me. The trail ran cold. Scent 2 - The Chairman from Cycle and Carriage. Was it possible? I spent a day in the National Library in Stamford Road . I found an interesting write-up of the past history of Cycle & carriage, from its early day when the Chua family, Chua Cheng Tuan and Chua Cheng Bok started out a business as the Federal stores in High Street, way back in 1899 till 1974, when the book was written. The book, Wheels of Progress: 75 years of Cycle & Carriage, written by Jennings , Eric in 1975, reveals that in 1963 C&C approved a project to build a car assembly plant in Hillview Avenue , following keen interest by Daimler-Benz London. The plant was operational by July 1965 and produced its 1 st car on Nov that same year. The plant was known as the Supreme Star Engineering Plant, and it manufactured buses and coaches bodies besides Benzs. But then in late 1970s, the car assembly business became uncompetitive, and having shut it down, C&C was left with a sizeable land at Hillview Avenue . In 1990, the company launched, on the site of its former car assembly plant in Singapore , its first residential property development, known as Hillview Villas. (C&C Annual Report, 1990)
From its annual reports from 1990 through 1998, I knew that C&C had dominated the Hillview property market and currently many of the condos in Hillview Estate were developed by C&C. They were The Scent – The Search Began I did a search on the property from the Singapore Land Authority (SLA). Believe me, it wasn't easy. Firstly there wasn't a House number, postal number or Lot number that I could use. No information existed at that time that could help me find who the owners is. But by ingenuity and the nose borrowed from Sherlock Holmes, I did manage to locate the Hillview House address. And for the first time, here are the facts as I can reveal them: The land which Hillview House stands on is a leasehold property with a 999 years lease with effect from 1885 / expiring 11/10/2884 The house was first built around 1970, and it stood on a piece of land size of 9173, big enough to build a condo. It was bought at $7,405,500 at $807.30 / sqm. (Nearby land bought in 1996 at average $3.8K sqm) The Hillview House was bought by the current owner in May 1990. It was bought by a major Realty Estate company Director in Singapore . The property was bought from another real estate agent (formed in 1987), who had since ceased operation.
There wasn't any mention of Cycle & Carriage. I was stumped where I should look next. The Scent Get Hotter It was around the same time that I pondered over these thoughts that a further revelation came to me. I received an email from someone with a email address belonging to Cycle & Carriage. The writer was enquiring about some other issues, but I had to ask… “Did ever the C&C Chairman stayed at the House on top of Dermawan Road ?” Her reply went it came, was like light rain falling down on my face on a hot summer day:
…….. yes the house was formerly owned by the Co's chairman, and in Hillview once stood Cycle & Carriage's first building. …… The stories were told by my colleagues who's been rendering their services for C&C for more than 30yrs....AS for the bungalow, I roughly know where it is located....The History of the bungalow went back as far as early 1970s.... The House belonged to the founder of Cycle & Carriage - the Chua Brothers.... If I'm not wrong, they were from Penang .....Way back in the 70s, when there we insufficient lamp posts along the cotton tree lined street of Hillview Ave. ... It was during that time that Hillview's prominent landmark was ehem... Cycle & Carriage Service Ctr & Assembly Plant.. So I was again pointed in the direction that it was formerly owned by C&C.
Then something happened that threw me off the track and almost made me threw all my investigative works to the wind. Different Scent - The Confusion
I happened to search through the on-line archives of the Building Construction Authority website at www.bca.gov.sg . There, they keep a list of Building Plan Approvals for the year before. I found this: It wrote that on lot(S) 1865 MK10 at Jalan Dermawan, there was going to be a proposed construction of 3 units of 2 storey detached dwelling house and a pair of 2 storey semi-detached dwelling house. A further check on BCA also reveals that the developer was FTN Development Pte Ltd. FTN Development? This wasn't the name of the current owner in my search with the SLA . When I visited its website then, it listed the Dermawan project as a ongoing project. There was a phone number listed there. I had to make the call.
The speaker on the other line replied to my query and said that “Yes, We are going to build houses there. It's at the hilltop, right at the end of Jalan Dermawan. We had just demolish the house there”. Demolish the House?? !! You can imagine my anguish and fear as I drove up Jalan Dermawan. There wasn't that many houses in Hillview Estate that you could go around demolishing without the notice of someone who had a bird's eye of the whole place (none, in fact). But when I reached there, I was relieved. The gate still stands. So it wasn't the Hillview House he was talking about, though the description fit pretty closely. Armed with information available I once again visited SLA and procured the following information: Lot(S) 1865 MK10 was formerly a number of properties bought over by Fook Tong Nam . They were 140, 142, 139, 141, and 143 of Jalan Dermawan. They were all brought over in 1996 at an average price of $3.8k per sqm.
Now I had the house numbers. I located the gate easily. It wasn't the gate I was interested in.
Proposed erection of houses behind this gate threw me off-scent for a while. Behind the gate in the distance is Hillview Court , a row of terrace houses right opposite Hillview House gate. The Scent – Back On Track So, I still wasn't any closer to finding out who actually owns Hillview House before it was bought over by this major real estate developer. I realise then at this point, I should look even deeper into the history books if I were to throw further light onto this puzzle. I pored over what information I had. Then I realised something. Hillview House was built in the 1970s, and the Informant working in C&C suggested just as much, that the bungalow was built in the 1970s, by the Chua Brothers of C&C. So then I started looking at who was the Chairman of C&C at that time . I went back to the National Library and consulted the C&C ‘bible' again. I was referring to the book, Wheels of Progress: 75 years of Cycle & Carriage, written by Jennings , Eric in 1975. I learnt that the Chairman of C&C then was Mr Chua Boon Peng. He was the Chairman of C&C right up to the time this book: Wheels of Progress was written. So if the urban legend that we heard is true, then Mr Chua Coon Peng was the Chairman of C&C at the time of the story.
Still, he is just a name, just like the name of C&C Chairman Thomas Chua in 1990. I still couldn't prove they own the House. It is highly probable that Hillview House if it was owned by any of them, would have been bought under their personal names. So it was possible that once C&C decided to divest their interest in Hillview area, the Hillview House land was sold off as well. So could this be it? That this divestment of interest was the reason why Hillview House was sold?
In all probability I believed so. The Scent – A New Lead I met Mr Chia, a small time building contractor at a meeting I also attended. Our conversation drifted to how the property market has slumped and that he (Mr Chia) now gets very few contracts to do renovation works for ‘Ang Moh' houses, as he put it. Lamely I asked if he knew if there was this empty house right at the top of Jalan Dermawan. “Oh, you mean the haunted house at the hill top?” He knew about it! Inwardly I leaped and somersaulted though on the exterior I was a face of calm. “Yes,” I replied. “You knew why it was empty?” “I visited the place once, when I was tendering for a project near there.” Mr Chia began. “A few contractors and me, we all went up to the house and looked around. It must have been many years back. One of my contractor friend said that halfway during renovation, Mindef (Ministry of Defence) put a stop to the works as they wanted to take back the land. There was a huge military installation just behind the hill where the House stood, and so Mindef wants the land back for security reason. The House Owner of course disputed Mindef claim for the land, having paid a large sum of money for it.” Mr Chia paused to catch his breath. He was going 50, grey hair streaking cross a otherwise jet black hair. I too, paused not daring to breath, lest I disturb his thoughts. “So then the matter was brought to Court to settle. And as a result, the House remain as it is till today, as the case is still being fought out.” I understood what he meant. Recently there had been report of a church land being taken back by our Government and being paid a dollar for it. If I were the owner, I would fight off the acquisition with my hands and teeth. I thanked him and left hurried. There was work to be done! He has told me information that I need to verify. And the sleuthing blood in me was racing to my head. First, Mr Chia reminded me again that the renovation works in Hillview House was left half completed, thus sprouting all these rumours of suicides, ghosts and murders. Reading back on the land information I got from SLA , I realise that Hillview House was mortgaged twice; once in 1990, and the second in 1994. The first mortgage in 1990 must be for the purchase of the House. As for the second mortgage in 1994, could it be for the renovations? If so, then was the renovations really stopped by Mindef due to security reasons? I know for a fact that Mindef hasn't taken over the place yet. Else their standard ‘No Trespassing' or No Entry' sign would be plastered all over that gate. So now I need look to look for court cases that might have been brought about by the Current Developer Owner to stave off any compulsory land acquisition by the Government. Unfortunately I didn't manage to find any case in that nature. Or perhaps I didn't look hard enough. But looking over my SLA data there wasn't any State Land encroachment charges either. So if it wasn't the Government that is taking back the land, why then was the Hillview House left half-renovated? But as if Fate was smiling at me, in conducting one of my Haunted Heritage Trail with a group, I met an elderly man who was outing jogging with his son. He was at the top of Jalan Dermawan's great slope, when my group walked to Hillview House gates. He spied and approached me. I said. “We are here tonight to look at the gates of this infamous House.” “Ah Yes, this house is very famous… “The elderly man said, “Many people had come to visit this place. It's very big, if I had money, I would buy it for myself..” “Any chance you know who own this piece of land?” I inquired. Behind my back I was keeping my fingers crossed. “It belonged to Cycle & Carriage Chairman, that Chua-something fellow.” “You seemed so certain, how did you know?” I asked, “Did you stay in Hillview long?” “Young man, you see how old I am? He seemed angry. “That's how long I have been staying here. If I say C&C Chairman stayed here, HE STAYED HERE. “Then you must know why the house was half renovated and left as it is then.” I probed. I wasn't going to let this opportunity slip by. The elderly man looked at me in askance, and his son who was standing besides us chipped in. “Yah dad, that guy is right. The House is left half renovated. It seemed that they (the contractors) simply stopped halfway and left” The elderly man pondered for awhile before answering: “Well, I do know that House Owner mortgaged the house to loan the money to someone. But there was some problem with the loan. Perhaps the loan had something to do with the half-done renovations.” BY then it was time to say goodbye to Hillview House as my group went up the bus and departed to our next destination. That night as I lay on my bed I was pondering over what I learnt today. The elderly man didn't know that the Hillview House was sold off at around 1990 to the current Real Estate Owner. But he did knew about the 2 nd mortgage. Is it possible then, then Hillview House was loaned or rented out to someone, who realised the loan money and then proceeded to renovate the House? Was it possible too that due to some financial difficulty the renovation was not completed and the loan was defaulted by the person who borrowed from the Major Developer? But if there was a loan from the current owner, why did that someone who borrowed the money need to renovate the house then? But as if Fate again would once again steer my hand, I received an email with a photo attached. During the time I was writing this report I had sent out emails to see if anyone would know when the renovations had started or when it stopped. As I was penning down this last statements in my report….…
Perhaps that was so. But this last mystery refused to yield its veil, and at the time this book was printed, remain unsolved.
Someone had sent me a photo showing a graffiti on between a column. So now could it be possible that the half-done renovations were actually done before the 1990 sale to the Major developer? Either I was played a prank, or someone did visit Hillview House way back in 1992 and scribbled his ‘visiting card' on the column. I once again considered the pile of paper information that lay all around my study table and floor. The 1 st Real Estate Company who sold to the Major Real Estate Company had 2 shareholders. One was Mr Chung. He had also several other companies as well. A check with Registry of Companies revealed that real estate company and others under that Mr Chung were dissolved in the years after the 1990 sale. Of the 6 companies I found under Mr Chung, only 2 remained ‘live'. It was possible then, that the renovations was started out by Mr Chung, but due to certain conditions/difficulties it was stopped in its renovations mid-way, and the land was subsequently sold to the Major Real Estate Company.
As for why the new Owner did not do anything about the land, perhaps the right plans for what the land in which Hillview House stood has not dawned on him yet. The last Scent Poring back over my data I realised that I had overlooked the huge amount of mortgage undertaken by the current Owner. In 1990 when the Owner bought Hillview House, it was mortgaged for $5 million. 1994, on the second mortgage, it was for $10 million. Perhaps there was some truth in what the old man had said earlier that night: “…. House Owner mortgaged the house to loan the money to someone. But there was some problem with the loan …” Or perhaps it was just realisation of the handsome profit the Owner had made in the property boom then. Whatever the real answer might be, the tale of the Hillview House in all probability isn't at all as depicted in the urban legends that surrounded it then.
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| Last Updated on Tuesday, 11 September 2007 08:55 |
