Cashin House
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| Cashin House | |
|---|---|
.svg)  Location within Singapore | |
| Alternative names | The Pier |
| General information | |
| Status | Restricted |
| Classification | R |
| Location | Lim Chu Kang Nature Park, Lim Chu Kang, Singapore, Singapore |
| Coordinates | 1°26′51.7″N 103°42′35.6″E / 1.447694°N 103.709889°E |
| Named for | Joseph Cashin |
| Construction started | 1920 |
| Completed | 1921 |
| Closed | 2009 |
| Owner | Joseph Cashin Howard Cashin National Parks Board |
| Landlord | Joseph Cashin Howard Cashin Singapore Land Authority |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 1 |
The Cashin House, known as The Pier, is a former residence of the Cashin family extending out to sea in Lim Chu Kang, Singapore. The house on the pier was restored and became a new visitor gateway to the western part of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve known as Lim Chu Kang Nature Park.
The Lim Chu Kang area in Singapore, was once made up of mangroves rain forests and rubber plantations belonged to Namazie and Cashin Estates. A pier was built in 1906 by Henry Cashin, an Irish merchant, for his rubber estate. Henry Cashin's grandson, Joseph Cashin, would build a house on the pier some time from 1920 to 1921, hence the name The Pier.
The Pier was also one of the sites where the Imperial Japanese Army first landed on the north-western coastline on 8 February 1942 during the Battle of Singapore of the World War II. Once Kranji and Lim Chu Kang fell during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, the Japanese went on to erect a war shrine at the site. The house was used by Imperial Japanese Army officers as a comfort stop until 1945.[1]
In the 1960s, before the rubber plantation owner and lawyer Howard Edmund Cashin (1920–2009) and his wife Gillian moved into the house, he had the war shrine removed and constructed the road to the house.
According to Howard Cashin in the interview, the Japanese war shrine was something that he had difficulty removing after the war as it was not easy to find workmen willing to demolish the shrine during that time, as the stone from the pedestal of the shrine had stood on was used to construct the road to the house that he wanted to add on.
The house was extended and redesigned, its interior was redesigned with a modern touch, with ceiling fans, aircon and other facilities powered by electricity. Barbeque pit and stone tables were the later additions on the landed compound near The Pier.[2] Cashin and his family would lived at The Pier occasionally as their weekend resort until his death on 5 September 2009.[3]
