Punggol's new landmark
In the early 1970s, the Government under the Land Acquisition Act as acquired the Maltida House aka Punggol Kampong House from Mr Cashin. Mr Howard Cashin, 82, eminent lawyer and a epitome on the Singapore rugby scene for decades, spent many happy holidays in and around it. It is called Matilda House, named for his paternal grandmother and built by his father, Mr Alexander Cashin, as a present for his wife.
The Punggol seaside bungalow, built in 1921/22 as a weekend retreat for the Cashin family, will be restored and conserved as a landmark and put to community use in Punggol New Town. The house is within a short walking distance from Punggol 21 and, for those old enough to remember, off that narrow winding road that led to those great Punggol Point seafood eateries.
It was in October 2002, Mr Cashin and The New Paper team visited the Matilda house again. Mr Cashin was quite shocked by seeing its present state, and he confessed to being 'a little shaken' at seeing it in its present state.
The glorious past
The dilapidated framework and red corrugated roof don't do any justice to its glorious past. It had a red-tiled roof and pristine white-washed walls then. It was a sprawling, single-storey, six-bedroomed bungalow with servants quarters attached, stables on the side and set in orchards which had mangosteen, durian and rambutan trees.
Manicured lawns, tropical blooms, clipped hedges lay to the front with neat tennis courts to the sides. And a long staircase ran down the garden - which was on several levels - to the sandy beach, which was a mere 200m away. Even this was not all of it. The Cashin family owned about 350 hectares of land in the area on which there were also rubber and coconut plantations.