Push to preserve ‘99-door mansion’
‘Haunted’ colonial building has heritage value
BUKIT MERTAJAM: Ravaged by time and its dark past, a century-old colonial mansion which the local folk here have named the “99-door mansion” is now a sorry sight.
What was surely a grand mansion once known as the Caledonia House is rotting away and infested by termites.
The original owner of this double-storey mansion, which has 99 doors, was John Ramsden, said to have died under mysterious circumstances.
Ramsden, who once served as the managing director of the Penang Rubber Estates, was believed to have been killed in 1948 by Communist guerillas who shot him twice in the back of his head.
And like any good folklore, some people believed that the property is haunted as they experienced “strange feelings” during their brief visit.
“The owner was killed and his wife then committed suicide because she was distraught over her husband’s death,” claimed a man in his 30s who wished to be known only as Khana.
Khana said his grandmother used to live there.
“Many mysterious incidents occurred while my grandmother was there in the 1920s,” he said.
After the Ramsden family estate collapsed, the land was sold to a pawnshop owner who sub-divided it into smaller lots before re-selling them.
The “99-door mansion”, which is said to have been built in 1916, is now surrounded by oil palm trees in an estate in Byram.
Each of the 10 rooms there has five to six doors while the remaining ones are located at the balcony, dance hall, living room and in the kitchen.
The open area in front of the mansion is so vast that some say it could have been a runway for small planes in the past.
Former Bukit Tambun assemblyman Ng Swee Ching also once owned the mansion after buying a portion of the Byram estate but later resold it to a businessman from Perak in the early 1970s.
However, the present owner is uncontactable with no way to verify his identity.
A caretaker, who declined to be named, said the land used to be be a rubber and coconut plantation before it was converted into an oil palm estate in the 1960s.
“I’ve been taking care of the estate and the mansion for the past 20 years. The owner doesn’t come here very often.
“I was told to keep people away from the mansion so as to prevent it from further damage.
“That was why I locked up the fence at the entrance,” he said.
Over the years, the Penang Heritage Trust and Seberang Prai Municipal Council (MPSP) tried to push the mansion for conservation but to no avail as the property sits on private land.
Jawi assemblyman Jason H’ng Mooi Lye, who was formerly a councillor, said the building should be classified as a heritage building.
“We can assist the owner to preserve the mansion.
“But since it is private land, there is nothing we can do,” he said.
MPSP Heritage and Tourism unit head Mohd Ridzal Abdul said application had been sent to the National Heritage Department in 2015 to gazette it as a heritage building.
“We have listed the building as a heritage building but since it is on private land, the owner has to agree to it.
“Once the owner agrees to it, the state will need to consider buying over the land where the mansion is situated as well as the land adjoining it and the main road,” he said.