14 Cách mạng Tháng 8 today

This article was published previously in Saigoneer http://saigoneer.com/

The art deco style building at 14 Cách mạng Tháng 8 was inaugurated in 1937 as the headquarters of the Cercle Indochinois at 14 rue Verdun.

The Cercle Indochinois HQ pictured in the 1940s

In October of that year, the Annales Coloniales described it as a “professional networking organisation with a membership of more than 100 French and Annamese doctors, lawyers, traders, industry officials, journalists” which served “to assist with the delicate tasks of the heads of the government” and enjoyed “a spirit of good fellowship which is worth maintaining.”

Between 1955 and 1975, the building served as the headquarters of Trần Quốc Bửu’s Việt Nam General Confederation of Labour Unions (Tổng liên đoàn Lao công Việt Nam), the largest labour organisation in South Việt Nam. During this period its address was 14 Lê Văn Duyệt.

The Việt Nam General Confederation of Labour Unions HQ pictured in the 1960s

Since 1975, the old Cercle Indochinois building has housed the Hồ Chí Minh City Labour Federation (Liên đoàn Lao động thành phố Hồ Chí Minh), southern branch of the Việt Nam General Confederation of Labour (Tổng Liên đoàn Lao động Việt Nam).

Tim Doling is the author of the guidebook Exploring Saigon-Chợ Lớn – Vanishing heritage of Hồ Chí Minh City (Nhà Xuất Bản Thế Giới, Hà Nội, 2019)

A full index of all Tim’s blog articles since November 2013 is now available here.

Join the Facebook group pages Saigon-Chợ Lớn Then & Now to see historic photographs juxtaposed with new ones taken in the same locations, and Đài Quan sát Di sản Sài Gòn – Saigon Heritage Observatory for up-to-date information on conservation issues in Saigon and Chợ Lớn.

The flatiron building at 19-21 Trần Hưng Đạo

This article was published previously in Saigoneer http://saigoneer.com/

One of the real architectural gems in Hồ Chí Minh City’s District 1, the flatiron building at the junction of Trần Hưng Đạo, Ký Con and Yersin streets (original address 19-21 boulevard Galliéni) was constructed in the 1930s to provide both offices and residential accommodation for the family of Nguyễn Văn Hảo, patriarch of the Comptoir Nguyễn Văn Hảo Saïgonnais, one of the city’s leading automotive spares companies which sold vehicle accessories from the shop spaces on the ground floor.

The Nguyễn Văn Hảo Theatre pictured in the 1930s

Nguyễn Văn Hảo clearly made a lot of money from this business, because in 1940 it was he who paid for the construction of the nearby Nguyễn Văn Hảo Theatre, one of Saigon’s earliest cinemas, which in 1945 was the venue for the public meeting which resolved to launch the August Revolution in the south.

In the early 1970s, the theatre was remodelled to a design by Vũ Bá Đính and after 1975 it became the Công nhân theatre. Today that venue – located near the Trần Hưng Đạo/De Tham street junction – serves as the main venue of the Hồ Chí Minh City Drama Theatre.

But back to the Nguyễn Văn Hảo flatiron building. Although it’s now in poor condition, it is still fully occupied by tenants – including, on the top floor, descendants of Nguyễn Văn Hảo.

The flatiron building at 19-21 Trần Hưng Đạo

Tim Doling is the author of the guidebook Exploring Saigon-Chợ Lớn – Vanishing heritage of Hồ Chí Minh City (Nhà Xuất Bản Thế Giới, Hà Nội, 2019)

A full index of all Tim’s blog articles since November 2013 is now available here.

Join the Facebook group pages Saigon-Chợ Lớn Then & Now to see historic photographs juxtaposed with new ones taken in the same locations, and Đài Quan sát Di sản Sài Gòn – Saigon Heritage Observatory for up-to-date information on conservation issues in Saigon and Chợ Lớn.

During the early period of American involvement in Việt Nam, United States policies concentrated heavily on culture and information programmes aimed at winning support for the Ngô Đình Diệm regime. And the focus of that effort was the large grey building on the Hai Bà Trưng/Lý Tự Trọng street intersection.

Originally numbered 82 Hai Bà Trưng, this attractive building was constructed in the early 1950s and subsequently leased by the Americans to serve as the Saigon offices of the United States Information Service (USIS). It was designed by French early modernist architect Arthur Kruze.

Another view of the former USIS building

According to an American report of 1956, “The USIS occupies excellent, roomy quarters in three floors of a street corner building at a prime location in downtown Saigon, about a mile from the Embassy. It is completely air-conditioned. The facilities include a library (ground floor), a 150-seat auditorium, radio studios and film editing and recording rooms. The square footage totals 33,454.” On 22 October 1957, 82 Hai Bà Trưng was one of three US installations in Sài Gòn to be targeted by the National Liberation Front.

In 1962, the USIS moved to what is now the Rex Hotel, where a new Abraham Lincoln Library opened its doors to the public. The building at 82 Hai Bà Trưng then became an annex. However, in subsequent years, as the insurgency gathered momentum, the United States gradually began to switch to a primarily military strategy. In 1964 the Abraham Lincoln Library was relocated to Lê Quý Đôn street (District 3) and in 1965, following the arrival of the first US combat troops, the USIS operation at the Rex was subsumed into the Joint US Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO), becoming an arm of the military. From that time onwards, the old annex at 82 Hai Bà Trưng became known as “JUSPAO 2.”

Soon after the Paris Peace Accords of 1973, 82 Hai Bà Trưng reverted to civilian usage. Today the building is mainly occupied by private apartments, but is perhaps best known as the home of the popular Quán Loan restaurant at 37 Lý Tự Trọng.

You may also be interested to read these articles:

In Search of Saigon’s American War Vestiges
American War Vestiges in Saigon – 60 Vo Van Tan
American War Vestiges in Saigon – 606 Tran Hung Dao
American War Vestiges in Saigon – 137 Pasteur
American War Vestiges in Saigon – Former “Free World” HQ

The USIS building in the 1960s (Richard C. Harris Jr. Collection, Vietnam Center and Archive)

Another image of the USIS building in the 1960s

The “JUSPAO 2″ Annex may be seen in this late 1960s photo of traffic on Hai Bà Trưng street

Tim Doling is the author of the guidebook Exploring Saigon-Chợ Lớn – Vanishing heritage of Hồ Chí Minh City (Nhà Xuất Bản Thế Giới, Hà Nội, 2019)

A full index of all Tim’s blog articles since November 2013 is now available here.

Join the Facebook group pages Saigon-Chợ Lớn Then & Now to see historic photographs juxtaposed with new ones taken in the same locations, and Đài Quan sát Di sản Sài Gòn – Saigon Heritage Observatory for up-to-date information on conservation issues in Saigon and Chợ Lớn.

A suspended monorail car on SAFEGE’s test track at Châteauneuf-sur-Loire in the early 1960s

As plans to build an ambitious US$154 billion urban railway and monorail network in Hồ Chí Minh City slowly take shape, it’s worth remembering a scheme advanced nearly 50 years ago to build a monorail system in Saigon.

By the mid 1960s, attacks by the National Liberation Front (NLF) had devastated South Việt Nam’s railway infrastructure, leaving it with just 357km of operational rail track in three isolated sections south of the 17th parallel. As the US Army set to work building logistics bases and support facilities for its troops, the refurbishment of the railway network was prioritised, along with the improvement of airfields and expansion of port facilities. In June 1966, the US Military Assistance Command Việt Nam (MACV), USAID, the Saigon government and its Joint General Staff jointly devised the US$25 million “Railroad Sabotage Replacement Program” to restore the southern railway network to operational condition.

The Saigon elevated railway station scheme

Encouraged by this massive US investment in its rail infrastructure, the Ministry of Transport decided to chance its hand by submitting to its American sponsors a number of other related – but perhaps not quite so essential – transport infrastructure projects.

These included an extraordinary plan to raise the railway line as it entered Saigon Station (then located alongside Phạm Ngũ Lão street in District 1), channelling it into a brand new elevated terminus, complete with a 15-storey office, hotel and apartment block which would have towered over Bến Thành Market.

However, perhaps the most intriguing plan of all was that put forward in 1966 to build a state-of-the-art two-line monorail system connecting Phú Lâm, Chợ Lón, Saigon and Gia Định (Bình Thạnh).

Interior of a suspended monorail car designed by SAFEGE, 1960 (photo credit: University of Washington Libraries)

With traffic congestion in the city increasing by the day, it would appear as if the authorities already regretted their 1956 decision that trams would be “abolished permanently and replaced by buses” (see my earlier post on the Saigon Tramway Network). For documents unearthed in the National Archives show that in 1966 the South Vietnamese Ministry of Transport commissioned a proposal from French “suspended metro” specialists SAFEGE-Transport (Société Anonyme Française d’ Etude de Gestion et d’ Entreprises) for the construction of two monorail lines – with routes not greatly dissimilar to the electric tramway lines abolished so eagerly just a decade earlier!

Monorail Line 1 would have travelled 9.4km from Phú Lâm via Chợ Lớn to the Bến Thành Market on Diên Hồng (modern Quách Thị Trang) square. There, it would have connected with the 6.6km Monorail Line 2, which would have run along Hàm Nghi to the Sài Gòn waterfront, then northwest along Đại lộ Cường Để (đường Tôn Đức Thắng) to Hồng Thập Tự (đường Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai) and finally northeast to Đa Kao and Gia Định.

The whole scheme would have cost at least US$48 million to build and its implementation was entirely dependent on foreign financial assistance. However, it seems not to have impressed the Americans. Like the elevated station project, the 1966 Saigon Monorail scheme was eventually derailed due to lack of funding.

Tim Doling is the author of The Railways and Tramways of Việt Nam (White Lotus Press, Bangkok, 2012) and also gives talks on Việt Nam railway history to visiting groups.

Tim is also the author of the guidebook Exploring Saigon-Chợ Lớn – Vanishing heritage of Hồ Chí Minh City (Nhà Xuất Bản Thế Giới, Hà Nội, 2019)

A full index of all Tim’s blog articles since November 2013 is now available here.

Join the Facebook group Rail Thing – Railways and Tramways of Việt Nam for more information about Việt Nam’s railway and tramway history and all the latest news from Vietnam Railways.

You may also be interested in these articles on the railways and tramways of Việt Nam, Cambodia and Laos:

A Relic of the Steam Railway Age in Da Nang
By Tram to Hoi An
Date with the Wrecking Ball – Vietnam Railways Building
Dong Nai Forestry Tramway
Full Steam Ahead on Cambodia’s Toll Royal Railway
Goodbye to Steam at Thai Nguyen Steel Works
Ha Noi Tramway Network
How Vietnam’s Railways Looked in 1927
Indochina Railways in 1928
“It Seems that One Network is being Stripped to Re-equip Another” – The Controversial CFI Locomotive Exchange of 1935-1936
Phu Ninh Giang-Cam Giang Tramway
Saigon Tramway Network
Saigon’s Rubber Line
The Changing Faces of Sai Gon Railway Station, 1885-1983
The Langbian Cog Railway
The Long Bien Bridge – “A Misshapen but Essential Component of Ha Noi’s Heritage”
The Lost Railway Works of Truong Thi
The Mysterious Khon Island Portage Railway
The Railway which Became an Aerial Tramway
The Saigon-My Tho Railway Line

The old Cercle des Officiers building, today home to the District 1 People’s Committee.

This article was  published previously in Saigoneer http://saigoneer.com/

The Cercle des Officiers building pictured in the late 1870s – note the Cathedral under construction in the background.

The grand colonial old pile at 47 Lê Duẩn, right opposite the Diamond Plaza, is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the city.

It was constructed in 1876 as the Cercle des Officiers or Officers’ mess, to provide social and recreational facilities for high-ranking members of the French armed forces. The no-nonsense design by the Cochinchina Department of Civic Buildings features a surrounding veranda and high ceilings to enhance ventilation.

One visitor of 1877 described it as “a large two-storey building which owes its existence to the munificence of the Governor, who had it built as a meeting place for officers of all the armed forces.”

The Cercle des Officiers building pictured in the 1890s.

He went on: “The ground floor houses the Marine Infantry Officers’ Mess, while on the upper floor there is a library, a lecture room, a billiards room and a bar. The subscription is one piastre per month.”

Between 1955 and 1975, the old Cercle des Officiers building was repurposed to house the South Vietnamese Ministry of Justice (Bộ Tư pháp).

Today it serves as the headquarters of the District 1 People’s Committee (Ủy ban Nhân dân Quận 1).

Tim Doling is the author of the walking tour guidebook Exploring Hồ Chí Minh City (Nhà Xuất Bản Thế Giới, Hà Nội, 2014) and also conducts Saigon and Chợ Lớn Heritage Tours.

A full index of all Tim’s blog articles since November 2013 is now available here.

Join the Facebook group pages Saigon-Chợ Lớn Then & Now to see historic photographs juxtaposed with new ones taken in the same locations, and Đài Quan sát Di sản Sài Gòn – Saigon Heritage Observatory for up-to-date information on conservation issues in Saigon and Chợ Lớn.

A Société Ernest Heckel “metallic cabin” aerial tramway system operating in Europe, 1934

With the construction of cable car systems currently all the rage in Việt Nam, perhaps this is an opportune time to tell the story of Việt Nam’s first public aerial tramway system.

In recent years the cable car has become increasingly synonymous with tourism in Việt Nam. From Vũng Tàu to Đà Lạt, from Nha Trang to Ba Na, it seems that no mountain landscape is complete without their omnipresent gantries and cables. Love them or hate them, by 2015 it will even be possible for tourists to take a cable car through the pristine mountain landscapes of Sapa.

The earliest forms of aerial tramway used in Việt Nam were téléphérique systems installed by the colonial French authorities at coal mining installations in Tonkin (Quảng Ninh) and Annam (Quảng Nam). However, before the 1930s there is no record of aerial tramways being used in Indochina as a means of public transportation.

Map of the Tân Ấp–Xóm Cục-Ban Na Phao rail/cable car line (Tim Doling)

All this changed in 1933, when funding for a new Việt Nam-Laos rail link through the Mụ Giạ border pass (modern Quảng Bình province) dried up and an aerial tramway built to carry construction materials to the chantiers was pressed into passenger service.

Back in 1898, the French had shelved the idea of building an “inland” rail link from Saigon to Hà Nội in favour of a coastal route, but as the Transindochinois railway line neared completion in the 1920s, a group of ministers in the administration of Governor General Martial Henri Merlin (August 1922–April 1925) began to lobby for the construction of a second rail route through the interior, with the aim of connecting Saigon and Hà Nội with Cambodia (Stung Treng and Kratie) and Laos (Thakhek). The idea was given added impetus in 1922 when tin deposits were discovered along the projected route in the Nam Pathene valley.

In 1927, plans were drawn up to build a preliminary 187km section of the new line from Tân Ấp junction (a main line station south of Vinh in rural Quảng Bình province) to Thakhek in Laos. The Saigon-Lộc Ninh “rubber line,” then under construction in Cochinchina, was envisaged as the future southernmost component of the same line.

A rare shot of the aerial tramway (photo credit: http://fer-air.over-blog.com/)

With the Siamese eventually expected to extend their rail network as far as Nakhon Phanom and Thakhek, proponents of the new line began to wax lyrical about a future “great international line” connecting Singapore with Paris. So enthusiastic were they that in 1927 they even delayed work on the final section of the Transindochinois, in order that preliminary planning of the new inland line could get under way.

Construction began simultaneously in 1929 on two separate stretches — from Tân Ấp to Xóm Cục (18km) in Annam, and from Thakhek to Pha Vang (16km) in Laos.

In parallel with these works, in order to increase the capacity of the service road in the mountainous border area, a 39km aerial tramway was built to link Xóm Cục with the Ban Na Phao frontier post in Laos. Funded by Germany as part of its war reparations programme, the construction of the aerial tramway was entrusted to the Ernest Heckel Company of Sarrebruck (founded 1781), which had recently made a name for itself by installing its famous “metallic cabin” systems in several up-market European ski resorts. When it was inaugurated in 1931, it was said to be the world’s longest aerial tramway line, with seven stops—Xóm Cục (Khe Ve), Cha Mác (Y Leng), Xóm Man (Bản Man), Bãi Dinh, Pou Toc Vou, Mụ Giạ and Ban Na Phao.

Xóm Cục Station with the connecting aerial tramway in the background (photo credit: http://fer-air.over-blog.com/)

Construction of the railway line proceded slowly, and the first 18km section from Tân Ấp to Xóm Cục did not open to traffic until 13 September 1933. There were only four stations – Tân Ấp (km 0), Xóm Danh (Thanh Thạch, km 5.51), Thanh Lạng (km 9.273) and Xóm Cục (Khe Ve, km 18). The railway line incorporated two tunnels at Thanh Lạng (334.32m) and Xóm Gi (70.38m), two iron river bridges and three brick viaducts of 39.72m, 56.72m and 65.76m respectively.

The 16km stretch of railway line built on Lao territory incorporated two viaducts and four stations—Thakhek (km 0), Ban Tham (km 7.44), Ban Nam Don (km 10.3) and Pha Vang (km 15.59). However, although construction of the Lao section is known to have reached an advanced stage, there is no evidence that it was completed or that trains ever ran on it.

By this time, critics of the “inland” railway scheme had gained the upper hand within the colonial administration, and against a background of financial crisis and growing political insurgency, funds to build the remainder of the line were diverted for use in other areas.

This mystery locomotive being unloaded from a ship on the Long Đại river (Quảng Ninh district, Quảng Bình province) onto the main North-South line in 1930 is believed to have been destined for the ill-fated Tân Ấp–Thakhek branch line

With no more money available to complete the railway line, the authorities stopped work on it and instead opened the aerial tramway to public service with effect from 18 December 1933.

Thereafter, the 18km railway line from Tân Ấp to Xóm Cục and the connecting 39km aerial tramway from Xóm Cục to Ban Na Phao became an important cross-border route for both passengers and freight, administered as an integral part of the colonial railway network Chemins de fer de l’Indochine. In the period from 1 November 1936 to 30 March 1937, it is said to have conveyed 1,197 tons of goods from Việt Nam to the Lao border and 348 tons in the other direction.

In October 1937, plans to build the remainder of the railway line were definitively abandoned by the French authorities. Although revived in 1942–1945 during the Japanese occupation and again briefly in 1948 by the French, they would ultimately come to nothing.

Passengers changing from train to the Thakhek bus at Xóm Cục Station in 1934 (photo credit: http://fer-air.over-blog.com/)

The extraordinary combined railway/aerial tramway service from Tân Ấp to Ban Na Phao continued in operation until 1947, when both railway and cableway were destroyed by the Việt Minh. Today, little remains of the original infrastructure other than the overgrown bases of old aerial tramway gantries, ruined railway viaducts, collapsed tunnels, and at Khe Ve (formerly Xóm Cục) the sole surviving metal railway bridge built by the Société Levallois-Perret.

Almost 70 years after the Tân Ấp–Thakhek railway line project was abandoned by the French, there are signs that the “great international line” from Singapore to Paris envisaged by Merlin’s ministers may one day become a reality as part of the Trans-Asia Railway (TAR) and Singapore-Kunming Rail Link (SKRL) schemes. In 2003 the governments of Việt Nam and Laos signed an agreement on Economy, Culture, Science and Technology in which the two sides pledged to build a rail link from the Lao capital of Vientiane to the coast of Hà Tĩnh Province in Việt Nam – via the Mụ Giạ Pass. Travelling via Thakhek and then following the route of the abandoned Tân Ấp–Thakhek branch, it will meet the North-South (and future SKRL/TAR Singapore-China) line at Tân Ấp junction and then continue eastward to Vũng Áng deep water port. The project is expected to bring considerable economic benefits to both countries.

“The cableway can carry 10 tons per hour in each direction. The carrying ropes are 22mm in diameter and have a breaking load of 41.9 metric tons. They are made up of 360-metre lengths connected by coupling sleeves of high-grade steel, the ends being held by cast metal cones so that they cannot be pulled out.
Each of the six interconnected sections has its own traction line, an endless wire rope 14mm in diameter with a breaking load of 10.8 tons. The cars are automatically attached to and detached from it by special grip. There are special cabs for passengers and special carriers for long objects like logs.
The speed of the system is 2.5m per second or 500 feet per minute. The normal distance between cars is 180 metres. When in full operation, a total of some 440 cars are under way and about 60 cars are on the sidings or in storehouses. Loads are automatically weighed before dispatch.
All the stations and supporting towers have steel frameworks. The steepest gradient is about 40 per cent and the longest span is 1,116 metres, measured horizontally. A telephone line parallels the cableway.”
INDEX of Records of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Entry 46: Intelligence Library, 1932-1947
No. EO-100B, 12 March 1943, railways in Indo-China. Report No. 5-b(2), USSBS Index Section 6
https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/4009619

Tim Doling is the author of The Railways and Tramways of Việt Nam (White Lotus Press, Bangkok, 2012) and also gives talks on Việt Nam railway history to visiting groups.

A full index of all Tim’s blog articles since November 2013 is now available here.

Join the Facebook group Rail Thing – Railways and Tramways of Việt Nam for more information about Việt Nam’s railway and tramway history and all the latest news from Vietnam Railways.

You may also be interested in these articles on the railways and tramways of Việt Nam, Cambodia and Laos:

A Relic of the Steam Railway Age in Da Nang
By Tram to Hoi An
Date with the Wrecking Ball – Vietnam Railways Building
Derailing Saigon’s 1966 Monorail Dream
Dong Nai Forestry Tramway
Full Steam Ahead on Cambodia’s Toll Royal Railway
Goodbye to Steam at Thai Nguyen Steel Works
Ha Noi Tramway Network
How Vietnam’s Railways Looked in 1927
Indochina Railways in 1928
“It Seems that One Network is being Stripped to Re-equip Another” – The Controversial CFI Locomotive Exchange of 1935-1936
Phu Ninh Giang-Cam Giang Tramway
Saigon Tramway Network
Saigon’s Rubber Line
The Changing Faces of Sai Gon Railway Station, 1885-1983
The Langbian Cog Railway
The Long Bien Bridge – “A Misshapen but Essential Component of Ha Noi’s Heritage”
The Lost Railway Works of Truong Thi
The Mysterious Khon Island Portage Railway
The Saigon-My Tho Railway Line

The Trans-Asia Railway (TAR) and Singapore-Kunming Rail Link (SKRL) schemes

Tân Ấp junction today.

The old Société Levallois-Perret railway bridge at Khe Ve (formerly Xóm Cục)

The view up river at Khe Ve (formerly Xóm Cục)

Ruins of an old brick railway viaduct

The overgrown bases of old aerial tramway gantries

Another old aerial tramway gantry

A late afternoon freight train speeds northwards past Tân Ấp

137 Pasteur today

The large pink building at 137 Pasteur in Hồ Chí Minh City has a colourful history.

From 1955-1962, this building was home to the Michigan State University Group (MSUG), which was controversially engaged under US sponsorship to advise and assist agencies of the Ngô Đình Diệm regime in a range of areas, including economics, public administration and training of police and security services. It was later alleged that the MSUG “helped to arm and train Diệm’s secret police, to formulate methods of repression and population control, to provide cover for the CIA, and to Americanize various educational, political,and social institutions.”

137 Pasteur in 1962

Soon after the departure of the MSUG in 1962, the building became the second headquarters of the US Military Assistance Command Việt Nam (MACV). When it was first set up in February 1962, MACV had shared the villa at 606 Trần Hưng Đạo (see earlier post) with the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG), but in May 1962 it acquired these larger premises, where it went on to become the unified command structure for all US military forces in Việt Nam.

By the mid 1960s, MACV had outgrown both 606 Trần Hưng Đạo and 137 Pasteur, so in 1966 it began moving its various branch offices into the massive purpose-built  “Pentagon East” complex, adjacent to Tân Sơn Nhất Air Base.

The building at 137 Pasteur was vacated by MACV on 2 July 1966. From that date onward, it served as the US Defence Attaché’s Office (DAO) until 1973 when, following the departure of US troops, the DAO moved into the former MACV headquarters at Tân Sơn Nhất Air Base. The building at 137 Pasteur then reverted to civilian usage.

You may also be interested to read these articles:

In Search of Saigon’s American War Vestiges
American War Vestiges in Saigon – 60 Vo Van Tan
American War Vestiges in Saigon – 606 Tran Hung Dao
American War Vestiges in Saigon – Former “Free World” HQ
American War Vestiges in Saigon – Former USIS Headquarters

Tim Doling is the author of the guidebook Exploring Saigon-Chợ Lớn – Vanishing heritage of Hồ Chí Minh City (Nhà Xuất Bản Thế Giới, Hà Nội, 2019)

A full index of all Tim’s blog articles since November 2013 is now available here.

Join the Facebook group pages Saigon-Chợ Lớn Then & Now to see historic photographs juxtaposed with new ones taken in the same locations, and Đài Quan sát Di sản Sài Gòn – Saigon Heritage Observatory for up-to-date information on conservation issues in Saigon and Chợ Lớn.

The 1922 Liên Thành company headquarters in Hồ Chí Minh City’s District 4

This article was published previously in Saigoneer http://saigoneer.com/

Now one of the few surviving heritage buildings in District 4, the ornate colonial edifice at 243 Bến Vân Đồn was constructed in 1922 as the second Saigon office of the famous Phan Thiết-based fish sauce manufacturer, Société de Lien-Thanh (Liên Thành Thương Quán or Công ty Liên Thành).

The founders of the Liên Thành Thương Quán: Hồ Tá Bang, Nguyễn Trọng Lợi, Nguyễn Quý Anh, Nguyễn Hiệt Chi, Trần Lệ Chất, Ngô Văn Nhượng

The company was founded in 1906 by Hồ Tá Bang, Nguyễn Trọng Lợi, Nguyễn Quý Anh, Nguyễn Hiệt Chi, Trần Lệ Chất and Văn Nhượng, all prominent activists in the patriotic Duy Tân reform movement led by Phan Châu Trinh, Trần Quý Cáp and Huỳnh Thúc Kháng. In 1907 they also founded the famous Dục Thanh School in Phan Thiết, modelled on the pioneering Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục in Hà Nội, to “educate young people about their nation.”

In 1909, the Liên Thành company opened a southern branch office in Chợ Lớn, renting a building at 1-3 quai Testard on the Phố Xếp Canal, now Châu Văn Liêm street.

In August 1910, Nguyễn Tất Thành – later known to the world as Hồ Chí Minh – arrived in Phan Thiết on his journey south to Saigon. After making the acquaintance of the Liên Thành company directors, he was invited to stay and teach at the Dục Thanh School. When he finally left Phan Thiết for Saigon seven months later, Nguyễn Tất Thành carried with him the offer of accommodation when he reached his destination.

An exhibition room now stands on the site of the first Liên Thành company headquarters at 1-3 quai Testard (now 5 Châu Văn Liêm) in Chợ Lớn, commemorating its association with Nguyễn Tất Thành (Hồ Chí Minh)

Nguyễn Tất Thành lived at 1-3 quai Testard in Chợ Lớn from February to June 1911, before famously leaving for France on board the Chargeurs Réunis vessel, l’Amiral Latouche-Tréville. Today a commemorative exhibition room stands on the site of the original Liên Thành company headquarters, now 5 Châu Văn Liêm.

The Liên Thành fish sauce company continued to rent office space at 1-3 quai Testard until 1922, when the colonial administration announced its intention to fill the remaining creeks and canals which then ran right through the centre of Chợ Lớn. Heavily reliant on waterborne transportation, the company immediately commissioned the construction of an ornate new headquarters building, on the south bank of the arroyo Chinois (Bến Nghé Creek) in Khánh Hội.

Despite the pressures of development, that second headquarters building still stands today.

Tim Doling is the author of the guidebook Exploring Saigon-Chợ Lớn – Vanishing heritage of Hồ Chí Minh City (Nhà Xuất Bản Thế Giới, Hà Nội, 2019)

A full index of all Tim’s blog articles since November 2013 is now available here.

Join the Facebook group pages Saigon-Chợ Lớn Then & Now to see historic photographs juxtaposed with new ones taken in the same locations, and Đài Quan sát Di sản Sài Gòn – Saigon Heritage Observatory for up-to-date information on conservation issues in Saigon and Chợ Lớn.

The main entrance to the Trần Phú Memorial Museum at Hồ Chí Minh City’s Chợ Quán Hospital

A Hospital for Tropical Diseases is perhaps not the most obvious visitor attraction, but a national historic site within the grounds of Hồ Chí Minh City’s Chợ Quán Hospital is worth a visit.

Founded in 1864 and managed until 1909 by the Sisters of Saint-Paul de Chartres, Chợ Quán Hospital, now known as the Hospital for Tropical Diseases (Bệnh viện Bệnh Nhiệt đới), is the oldest hospital in Hồ Chí Minh City.

Inside the old secure psychiatric ward building

Focusing initially on the treatment of infectious diseases, it began specialising after 1904 in mental illness. Today this specialism is handled by the Psychiatric Hospital (Bệnh viện Tâm thần), located on the same campus.

As opposition to French rule intensified during the last few decades of colonial rule, the prison system became increasingly overcrowded, obliging the authorities to convert other public buildings into jails. One such building was the secure psychiatric ward at Chợ Quán Hospital, which by the late 1920s doubled as a jail where political prisoners were held for interrogation.

A group cell with a raised platform for the inmates to lie on with their legs in shackles

In the 1980s that ward was restored in period style and today it is open to the public as a small museum, dedicated primarily to the memory of its most famous inmate, Trần Phú, first Secretary General of the Indochina Communist Party.

Trần Phú (1904-1931) was born on 1 May 1904 at An Thổ village in Tuy An district of Phú Yên province. The son of a minor official, he attended the National School in Huế where his brilliant intellect soon became apparent. After co-founding the Việt Nam Revolutionary Party (Việt Nam Cách mạng Đảng) in 1925, Phú went to Guangzhou in the following year to negotiate his party’s merger with Nguyễn Ái Quốc’s Việt Nam Revolutionary Youth Association (Hội Việt Nam Cách mạng Thanh niên).

Trần Phú (1904-1931)

In 1927 he went to the Soviet Union to study Marxist-Leninist doctrine at the Eastern University in Moscow and in the following year he attended the sixth session of Communist International. When the Indochina Communist Party (Đông Dương Cộng sản Đảng) was set up in October 1930, Trần Phú was elected as its first Secretary General.

Trần Phú was among several members of the Indochina Communist Party tried and convicted in absentia by a court in Nghệ An on 11 October 1929. Captured by French police on 18 April 1931 while visiting the Party’s printing house at 66 rue Champagne (now 66 Lý Chính Thắng) in Sài Gòn, he was detained in several different locations before being moved to the secure psychiatric ward at Chợ Quán Hospital on 26 August 1931.

The cell where Trần Phú died on 6 September 1931, aged just 27

On his third day at the hospital he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and transferred into the isolation ward. He died 11 days later on 6 September 1931, aged just 27.

Many other revolutionaries were incarcerated at Chợ Quán Hospital during the years of resistance against France, including Hà Huy Tập and Trần Não.  Another of its famous inmates was the founder of the Hòa Hảo sect, Huỳnh Phú Sổ (1920–1947), who was incarcerated here from 1940-1941 and is said to have converted his psychiatrist, Dr Tam to the Hòa Hảo faith.

After 1955 the South Vietnamese authorities continued to use the south wing of the prison ward to intern political prisoners.

In 1976 the old prison ward once more became part of the main hospital, but in the 1980s, because of its historic association with the revolutionary struggle, it was declared a historic site.

The Trần Phú Memorial Museum is located within the Chợ Quán Hospital compound, around 200 metres from the main entrance gate.

The yard in front of the building has been converted into a small memorial garden with a bust of Trần Phú and a stele in Vietnamese which reads:

Mr Trần Phú, Secretary General of the Indochina Communist Party (now the Communist Party of Việt Nam), born 1.5.1904, sacrificed 6.9 1931 in this prison.
Before he passed away, he reminded his comrades: “Remain determined to fight.”
His last words tell of the heroic mettle of the communists who never succumbed to the violence of the enemy in whatever situation they found themselves. These words became a powerful weapon for the Vietnamese people to wield against enemy forces, helping them to overcome difficulties on the revolutionary road.

The former secure psychiatric ward – a U-shaped building with bare concrete walls and a tiled floor – is divided into both individual and group cells, each with a raised platform for the inmate or inmates to lie on with their legs in shackles.

Another of the group cells in the former secure psychiatric ward

The door of each room has a small peephole through which guards could monitor the activities of the inmates inside.

The main section of the prison ward contains a narrow area for female prisoners at the front and behind it a larger area for male prisoners. The female area contains three large cells, two individual cells, two windowless solitary confinement spaces and a bathroom, while the male area contains three large cells, one individual cell, two windowless solitary confinement spaces and a bathroom.

When Trần Phú first arrived at Chợ Quán Hospital, he was detained in the largest of the three main cells in the male section, along with around 20 other activists.

The south wing, used to intern political prisoners during the period 1955-1975

The north wing was once the isolation ward (Khu cách ly) and is made up of two large cells, four individual cells, two windowless solitary confinement spaces and two bathrooms. After it was discovered that Trần Phú had contracted tuberculosis, he was placed in one of the large cells here, together with fellow revolutionaries Nguyễn Văn Nhung and Châu Văn Sanh. When his condition worsened, he was moved into one of the individual cells and it was there that he died. A small shrine has been set up in his memory and memorial rites are often performed.

The south wing of the prison ward (Khu biệt giam) was the main area used to intern political prisoners during the period 1955-1975. Part of that wing has been turned into an exhibition facility containing photographs and documents (in Vietnamese only) recounting the history of the site and the life of Trần Phú. Visitors can also view two large and two small cells in the rear section of this wing.

The Trần Phú Memorial Museum at Chợ Quán Hospital was recognised as a national historic monument by the Ministry of Culture and Information on 16 November 1988.

Getting there
Address: Khu trại giam Bệnh viện Chợ Quán – Nơi đồng chí Trần Phú hy sinh, Bệnh viện Chợ Quán, 766 Võ Văn Kiệt, Phường 1, Quận 5, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh
Directions: Entering the main gate, take the lane immediately to the right of the large sign containing the plan of the hospital – a signpost on a nearby tree tells you that this road leads to the Đơn vị khám chuyên khoa gan (Specialist Liver Unit). If you walk down this road (in front of the Bách Hóa Canteen) you will find the Trần Phú Memorial Site compound a bit further along on the right hand side, surrounded by flags.
Telephone: 84 (0) 16 5250 6566
Opening hours: On request 8am-11am, 2pm-4.30pm daily
Admission: free of charge

See also Off the Tourist Trail in Saigon – The People’s Army Delegation HQ

Tim Doling is the author of the guidebook Exploring Saigon-Chợ Lớn – Vanishing heritage of Hồ Chí Minh City (Nhà Xuất Bản Thế Giới, Hà Nội, 2019)

A full index of all Tim’s blog articles since November 2013 is now available here.

Join the Facebook group pages Saigon-Chợ Lớn Then & Now to see historic photographs juxtaposed with new ones taken in the same locations, and Đài Quan sát Di sản Sài Gòn – Saigon Heritage Observatory for up-to-date information on conservation issues in Saigon and Chợ Lớn.

The elegant colonial villa at 606 Trần Hưng Đạo, currently threatened by demolition

This article was published previously in Saigoneer http://saigoneer.com

The grand old villa at 606 Trần Hưng Đạo, one of Chợ Quán’s few remaining heritage buildings, is currently threatened with redevelopment.

According to local historians, 606 Trần Hưng Đạo was once the site of an old Khmer pagoda, but by 1932 that had been demolished to make way for the current building, an elegant villa built for the state-franchised charity lottery company known as the Société pour l’amélioration morale, intellectuelle et physique des indigènes de Cochinchine (SAMIPIC).

The MAAG headquarters at 606 Trần Hưng Đạo in 1962 (unknown photographer)

Founded in 1926 and run by a committee which “grouped together the élite of Annamite society” (Gazette coloniale, 1936), SAMIPIC sold 2-piastre lottery tickets to the public and then donated a substantial part of its income to charitable, health and educational causes in Cochinchine. It also “organised conferences, and every year offered a number of scholarships in France and in the colony to the most deserving students.”

SAMIPIC’s achievements included setting up the Maison des Associations Annamites in Saigon in 1929 and funding the construction of the “Maison indochinoise” at the Cité Universitaire de Paris, which was inaugurated on 22 March 1930 by French President Gaston Doumergue and the young King Bảo Đại.

SAMIPIC was housed initially in a small villa near the Parc Maurice Long [today’s Tao Đàn Park], but on 16 February 1933, La Croix newspaper reported the inauguration of its brand new headquarters at 96 boulevard Galliéni (now 606 Trần Hưng Đạo). The building was later described as “superb,” with “magnificent decor” (Écho annamite, 6 September 1941).

Another view of the MAAG headquarters at 606 Trần Hưng Đạo from 1963 (unknown photographer)

After the departure of the French in 1954, the villa was acquired by the American government and became home to the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG), which co-ordinated the supply of military hardware, training and assistance to the French and subsequently to the Republic of Việt Nam. Because of its high profile, the villa was one of three US installations in the city targeted by the National Liberation Front on 22 October 1957.

In February 1962, following the arrival of the first US Army aviation units, MAAG became part of the Military Assistance Command Việt Nam (MACV), which was set up to provide a more integrated command structure with full responsibility for all US military activities and operations in Việt Nam.

At first, MACV staff shared the villa at 606 Trần Hưng Đạo with their MAAG colleagues, but in May 1962 they were given separate accommodation on Pasteur street (see 137 Pasteur). From that date until 1966, the villa at 606 Trần Hưng Đạo was known as “MACV II.” MAAG survived as a separate entity until May 1964, when its functions were fully integrated into MACV.

The Republic of Korea Forces Vietnam (ROKFV) headquarters building at 606 Trần Hưng Đạo in February 1969 (photograph via fold3.com)

In 1966, following the transfer of all MACV operations to the new “Pentagon East” complex at Tân Sơn Nhất Air Base, the villa at 606 Trần Hưng Đạo was vacated by the Americans and became the headquarters of the Republic of Korea Forces Vietnam (ROKFV), which remained at the villa until the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973.

The villa at 606 Trần Hưng Đạo is currently home to several local businesses. However, according to reliable sources, there are plans to demolish it and replace it with a new office block.

UPDATE – Despite its heritage value, this building was demolished in August 2018.

You may also be interested to read these articles:

In Search of Saigon’s American War Vestiges
American War Vestiges in Saigon – 60 Vo Van Tan
American War Vestiges in Saigon – 137 Pasteur
American War Vestiges in Saigon – Former “Free World” HQ
American War Vestiges in Saigon – Former USIS Headquarters

The MACV II headquarters at 606 Trần Hưng Đạo, pictured some time between 1962 and 1966 (unknown photographer)

The Republic of Korea Forces Vietnam (ROKFV) headquarters building at 606 Trần Hưng Đạo in February 1969 (photograph via fold3.com)

The Republic of Korea Forces Vietnam (ROKFV) headquarters building at 606 Trần Hưng Đạo in the late 1960s (unknown photographer)

The Republic of Korea Forces Vietnam (ROKFV) headquarters building at 606 Trần Hưng Đạo in 1969 (unknown photographer)

Tim Doling is the author of the guidebook Exploring Saigon-Chợ Lớn – Vanishing heritage of Hồ Chí Minh City (Nhà Xuất Bản Thế Giới, Hà Nội, 2019)

A full index of all Tim’s blog articles since November 2013 is now available here.

Join the Facebook group pages Saigon-Chợ Lớn Then & Now to see historic photographs juxtaposed with new ones taken in the same locations, and Đài Quan sát Di sản Sài Gòn – Saigon Heritage Observatory for up-to-date information on conservation issues in Saigon and Chợ Lớn.