Within the forest of bounded by Tyersall Ave and Holland/Napier Road, lies a big mansion that had seen better days.
Many blogs and photo albums have been written about this mansion.
This mansion was also covered by Shin Min on 5 Dec 07.
Translation:
Beside Botanical Gardens, there is a empty abandoned piece of land with a old mansion built by a Johor Sultan.
This empty mansion has been abandoned for 50 - 60 years, but last Jul 10, there was a mysterious fire that nearly burned the whole mansion down. THe roof also collapsed.
It is also mysterious that this mansion has caught fire 2 other times, and once 700 people were killed.
According to some people with 3rd eye, the souls of those 700 people would still be seen even now in the mansion.
According to one local paranormal group with such a third eye, besides these 700 spirits, this quiet mansion would also be the occasion of some "festive" atmosphere. When this member was there, he used to saw imperial guards stationed outside the house, and inside the big hall, there were well dressed royalty, high society ladies and gentlemen and businessman attending a party there.
Not so long ago, he also came across a man styled and dressed like an English gentleman sitting leisurely on an old sofa.
This reporter follow this parnormal group member to the mansion, which is a certain distance from the busy Holland road. It was surrounded by wild grass and bushes.
The whole mansion was blackened and there was no rooftop. It was severely damaged. But from the building plan, one could still see the former storage room, laundry room and bedrooms etc.
However the reporter could not see any 700 spirits, nor royal feast nor guards nor English gentleman, but some mysterious footprints on the walls and ceiling. These footprints looked like those of cat's paws prints.
The reporter is puzzled how come the cat paw prints appeared on the celing? From the size of the prints, it does not look like that of a lizard.
The Two Fires
This old mansion was built by Sultan Abu Bakar in 1890. In 1905 Sep 10, this mansion caught fire was was badly burnt. It was then rebuilt in 1932. In 1942, this mansion was temporarily used as a hospital for the soldiers fighting in Singapore.
In Feb that year, Japan invade Singapore and this hospital became a military target. Again a fire occured and 700 medical workers and soldiers were burnt to dead, non survived.