Draft:Nantina Home

The Nantina Home was a building on Queen Street in Singapore. Prior to the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, the building operated as the Toyo Hotel. It became the Nantina Hotel after the war and was converted into the Nantina Home, a welfare home, soon after. It was renamed the Trade Union House when it became the temporary headquarters of the Singapore Trades Union Congress in 1959.

History

The Japanese-owned Toyo Hotel was established on Queen Street before the Japanese Occupation of Singapore. According to writer Justin J. Corfield, Lieutenant-Colonel Yokata moved into the building on 17 February 1942, with military executive Mamoru Shinozaki joining him there, and that the building served as the initial headquarters of the Japanese kempeitai. In his biography, local academic and diplomat Maurice Baker wrote in his autobiography that during the occupation, the building was used as a "centre for Japanese officers", and that an armed sentry was stationed in front of the building. Rudy Mosbergen wrote in his 2007 book In the Grip of a Crisis: The Experiences of a Teenager that the hotel was initially "filled with local war refugees". After they were relocated, the building reopened as a hotel for the "pleasure for Japanese visitors". It was requisitioned "mainly for the use of civilian personnel working for the army." It was used by the kempeitai as a registration centre for Eurasians and as a detention house for suspects. The building was used Shinozaki claimed to have first proposed the establishment of the Oversea Chinese Association to leader of the local Chinese community Lim Boon Keng during a meeting at the hotel.

In August 1946, it was announced that the building, which had already been renamed the Nantina Hotel, had been taken over by the Department of Social Welfare, who were to convert it into a women's school for household work, cooking, hygiene, children's health, home management and "general domestic science". It was to accommodate 200 students. It was to open in the middle of October. The building served as a home for "needy or ill-treated girls taken over by the Welfare Department and taught to cook, sew and in general be useful, nimble and efficient in the house." In June 1948, the home's occupants were transferred to the York Hill Home for the "aged and the destitute and also any passing immigrants", whose occupants were transferred to the Nantina Home. However, the Nantina Home could only accommodate 60 people, and the departmant assisted several of the York Hill Home's previous occupants in finding alternative accommodation. In March 1949, The Malaya Tribune reported that the home featured a "strong sense of 'family cooperation'", with chores being divided amongst the residents. Younger residents took care of the harder chores while older residents completed the easier tasks. The home's superintendent then was boxing promoter Matthew L. Frank de Souza while its supervisor was Bertie Dunsford. In August 1950, the home, which then had 44 residents, received new iron beds, mattresses and pillows.

In November 1953, Christine Diemer of The Singapore Standard wrote that the home had a "lively spirit that is almost gay". The home took in people who who had "no place to go", the "inability to work", were of old age and no money and no relatives to care for them, for free. The home had a capacity of 75 people, with every room housing two to four residents, who were allowed to "fix up" the rooms. Residents were provided with a a small monthly allowance of $5.00, soap, toothpaste, dental care and medical care. The home also had a sitting room and a complaint box. There was "no strict discipline" Events hosted included a "weekly cinema treat" and tea parties held at the Red Cross Old People's Club in the Wesley Hall of the Wesley Methodist Church every Thursday. Residents who wished to leave the home past 10 p.m. were provided with a late pass. Diemer reported that, excluding the monthly allowance, it cost around $2.16 a day to care for each resident. She also wrote that "apart from the noise on the street, it is definitely pleasant and cheerful." By November 1953, there were plans to merge the home with the York Hill Home, which had been renamed the Bushey Park Home. In December 1958, the home was already fully-occupied with a long waiting list.

In July 1959, it was announced that the home would have to vacate the building to make way for the Singapore Trades Union Congress. The three-storey building was chosen as the congress's temporary headquarters while it was awaiting the completion of the Singapore Conference Hall and Trade Union House on Shenton Way as it was "sited in a central locality." A research library, a meeting room, a lounge and offices were to be installed in the building. The male residents of the home were to be transferred to the Bushey Park Home, while the female residents of the home were to be transferred to the Holne Chase Home. The "mentally deficient" children who were housed in Holne Chase were relocated to the Woodbridge Hospital. At the time of the home's closure, it had 41 residents in total. The Trade Union Congress moved into the building's top floor from its former premises in a Singapore Improvement Trust flat on Towner Road on 1 November. The second storey, which had 11 rooms, was reserved for other unions while the ground floor remained vacant. It was "part of the government's proposal to unify the trade union movement. The organisation was not required to pay any rent.

By March 1962, the unions occupying the building were the Singapore National Seamen's Union, the Singapore Insurance Companies' Employees' Union, the Singapore Bank Employees' Union, the Musicians' Union of Singapore, the Amalgamated Union of Public Employees and the United Workers of Petroleum Industry.

The building was located in between the Mercantile Institution and the Queen Street Post Office. It had been demolished by March 1977.