CHIJMES was originally known as the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ), a premier girls’ school established in 1854 by an order of French Catholic nuns. Originally located on a self-contained city block bound by Victoria Street, Bras Basah Road, North Bridge Road and Stamford Road, the site formerly included the English-language primary and secondary schools, a Chinese-medium school called St Nicholas Girls’ School, an orphanage, the nun’s quarters, and the chapel. In 1983, the primary and secondary schools relocated to their current premises at 626 and 628 Lorong 1 Toa Payoh respectively. The site was redeveloped and partially demolished to build the Mass Rapid Transit Corporation (MRTC) headquarters. The remaining complex includes Caldwell House, the chapel now known as CHIJMES Hall, and the orphanage building, and now houses a number of retail and food and beverage outlets. The complex was gazetted as a national monument on 26 October 1990.
Establishment and development of CHIJ
In 1851, Father Jean-Marie Beurel, priest of the Good Shepherd Church, was sent to Paris to recruit teachers on behalf of the Apostolic Vicar of Malaya. He approached the Institute of the Charitable Schools of the Holy Infant Jesus of St Maur, an order of well-educated and socially conscious nuns. In October 1852, the order sent a group of nuns, led by Rev. Mother Mathilde Raclot, to Penang, where they established the first Infant Jesus school in Asia.
In February 1854, Mother Raclot and three companions travelled to Singapore, where they moved into a house on the corner of Victoria Street and Bras Basah Road. Purchased from magistrate’s clerk H. C. Caldwell, it came to be known as Caldwell House. Despite the initially austere living conditions, the sisters commenced lessons for two classes of students less than two weeks after their arrival. Later referred to colloquially as the “Town Convent”, the school soon expanded and became known for providing education of a good standard.
The following year, the convent acquired the house adjacent to Caldwell House. This became an orphanage for children who were unwanted or from poor or broken homes. Single mothers or women who could not afford to keep their babies often left them at the orphanage’s side gate, which came to be known as the “Baby Gate” and the “Gate of Hope”. Such abandoned children were often female, Chinese, and suffering from poor health. Many died after being abandoned, with some already dead upon arrival. Those that survived learned vocational and domestic skills and received a free education at the school.
Over the following years, the convent steadily acquired adjacent plots of land that became part of the growing convent complex. In 1860, the convent bought land that had belonged to Raffles Institution. In 1892, aided by contributions from the government and wealthy benefactors, a boarding house was built on the Stamford Road side of the complex.
By the 1890s, the simple chapel that had been constructed in 1855 had become insufficient for the expanding school and orphanage. In 1898, a new Gothic chapel was designed by Father Charles Benedict Nain, a priest from the Church of St Peter and St Paul and a trained architect who also designed the distinctive wings of St Joseph’s Institution. The chapel was completed in 1903 and consecrated on 11 June 1904.
Classes were started for Chinese-speaking girls at four bungalows rented from Hotel Van Wijk (also known as Hotel Van Dyke), adjacent to the convent site. In October 1931, the convent bought the hotel and demolished it. A new block of classrooms was built in 1933 that became Victoria Girls’ School, later St Nicholas Girls’ School.
Relocation of school and development of CHIJMES
As early as the 1960s, there was talk of developing what was known then as Raffles International Centre, where Raffles City now stands. By the early 1970s, the government was considering this in tandem with plans to develop a mass transport system. All these plans earmarked the large convent site for redevelopment. The government eventually acquired the land from the convent in 1983, and the schools were allocated a new site in Toa Payoh.
On 3 November 1983, mass was held in the chapel for the last time, after which it was deconsecrated for non-religious use. By December, the primary and secondary schools had vacated the Victoria Street site and moved to their new premises in Toa Payoh, where they began operations the following year.
At the original convent site, the secondary school building was demolished in 1984 to build the MRTC headquarters. After initially indicating that it would undertake the restoration of the site, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) put up the site for sale in March 1990. To preserve the ambience of the remaining buildings, URA gazetted Caldwell House and the chapel as national monuments in 1990, and designated the entire complex a conservation area with high restoration standards and strict usage guidelines.
The buildings underwent extensive restoration works before the complex reopened in 1996 as CHIJMES. Pronounced “chimes”, the name incorporates the initials of the original school and echoes its history as the site of a chapel and schools.
Architecture
The three main buildings within the CHIJMES complex are Caldwell House, the orphanage and the chapel.
Built between 1840 and 1841, Caldwell House is the second-oldest building in Singapore and the oldest building within the complex. Designed by architect G. D. Coleman, it is one of the few surviving examples of his work. The front of the two-storey building extends in a semi-circle that creates a distinctive profile. The nuns received visitors in the parlour on the ground floor and did their sewing, reading and writing upstairs for many years. The upstairs lounge originally contained a large octagonal wooden table that now resides at the LASALLE College of the Arts. The room still features an original wall inscription that reads Marche en ma presence et sois parfait (French for “Walk along with me and be perfect”).
Continuing Coleman’s neoclassical style, the two-storey orphanage is the second-oldest building within the complex. The interior of the upper floor, formerly the dormitory, features a grand gallery with large Doric columns supporting a vaulted timber ceiling.
The centrepiece of the CHIJMES complex is the Gothic chapel with its flanking linkways. Renamed CHIJMES Hall, the building exterior features flying buttresses and a five-storey spire. Carved letters on the chapel façade stand for Iesu Homine Salvator (Latin for “Jesus, Saviour of the World”). Each of the 648 columns of the building and linkways feature unique, intricate carvings of tropical birds and plants.
The chapel interior features delicate stained glass windows that were produced in Bruges, Belgium by Jules Dobbelaere, considered the finest stained glass craftsman in late nineteenth-century Europe. The glass panels depict scenes from the Bible as well as the 12 apostles. Below a cross-vaulted ceiling, the floor of the chapel is laid with multi-coloured terrazzo tiles. The chapel originally contained wooden pews imported from Toulouse, France.
Author
Joanna HS Tan
References
CHIJ Victoria Street, 1954-1983. (1983). Singapore: CHIJ.
(Call no.: RCLOS 373.5957 CHI)
CHIJMES. (2006). About us. Retrieved on December 6, 2010 from http://www.chijmes.com.sg/storyofchij.html
Chng, G. and Khalik, S. (1983, October 2). The Convent diaries. The Straits Times, p. 1. Retrieved on December 15, 2010, from NewpaperSG.
Convent education. (1924, November 25). The Straits Times, p. 10. Retrieved on December 15, 2010, from NewpaperSG.
Davie, S. (1990, April 1). URA: Serenity and ambience of CHIJ site will be kept. The Straits Times, p. 13. Retrieved on December 15, 2010, from NewpaperSG.
Haven-ly quiet. (1982, December 11). The Straits Times, p. 9. Retrieved on December 15, 2010, from NewpaperSG.
Ker, S. (1984, June 29). Two more landmarks bite the dust. The Straits Times, p. 22. Retrieved on December 15, 2010, from NewpaperSG.
Kong, L. (1994). Convent chronicles: History of a pioneer mission school for girls in Singapore. Singapore : Armour Pub.
(Call no.: RSING 373.5957 KON)
Liu, G. (1996). In granite and chunam: The national monuments of Singapore (pp. 255-269). Singapore: Landmark Books.
(Call no.: RSING 725.94095957 LIU)
Makepeace, W. Brooke, G. E., and Braddell, R. S. J. (Eds). (1991). One hundred years of Singapore (pp. 453-454). Singapore: Oxford University Press.
(Call no.: RSING 959.57 ONE)
Meyers, Elaine. (2004). Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus: 150 years in Singapore. Penang, Malaysia: The Lady Superior of Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus.
(Call no.: 371.07125957 MEY)
New classrooms for catholic convent. (1951, March 8). The Singapore Free Press, p. 5. Retrieved on December 15, 2010, from NewpaperSG.
New convent chapel. (1904, June 10). The Straits Times, p. 5. Retrieved on December 15, 2010, from NewpaperSG.
Raffles Centre plans: Second look. (1971, February 25). The Straits Times, p. 5. Retrieved on December 15, 2010, from NewpaperSG.
School's chapel to be preserved. (1983, June 16). The Straits Times, p. 8. Retrieved on December 15, 2010, from NewpaperSG.
Siow, D. (1990, March 22). Government now decides to sell the historic CHIJ site. The Straits Times, p. 40. Retrieved on December 15, 2010, from NewpaperSG.
The Straits Times says... Full of Eastern promise. (1983, July 12). The Straits Times, p. 14. Retrieved on December 15, 2010, from NewpaperSG.
Tragedy of Singapore's unwanted babies. (1946, November 14). The Straits Times, p. 8. Retrieved on December 15, 2010, from NewpaperSG.
Tyers, R. K. (1976). Singapore: Then and now (pp. 54, 62). Singapore: University Education Press.
(Call no.: RSING 959.57 TYE)
Van Wijk hotel sold. (1931, September 9). The Straits Times, p. 12. Retrieved on December 15, 2010, from NewpaperSG.
Further readings
Former Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus Chapel and Caldwell House (now CHIJMES). (2010). Retrieved November 4, 2010, from Preservation of Monuments Board website: http://www.pmb.sg/
The information in this article is valid as at 2010 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.
