To me the most famous road in Sibu is the Island road and the most iconic church is the old Masland Church.
This photo was taken in the 50's when I was in the Methodist Primary School. It shows a bus which is an old Bedford. The best known bus company in the olden days was Sungei Merah Bus Company. But the first man who owned a bus was Uncle Wong Cheng Ding, the son of the legendary Mrs. Wong Ping Chuan, whom we all affectionately called Ping Chuan Moo Moo. I was too young to know the name of his bus company. He left behind a big property known as Motor Workshop next to the San Sun Rice Mill. His children also remember that.
The Church in the photo is the original Masland Church, named after Mrs. Masland who donated a large sum of money to Rev James Hoover who built this church. This is not the first Church built by the Methodist. The first church ever built by the Methodist Foochows is Sing Ang Tong. Named NEW PEACE church because the Foochow pioneers were seeking shelter from war, poverty, bad government, famine and banditry in the 1900, which was the end period of the Qing Dynasty.
On the right of the Masland Church is the original Methodist Book Room, which has now been completely rebuilt.
Island Road in those days was tree lined. Bamboo Hedges were planted to delineate properties. Besides,canna lilies also dotted the roadside making Island Road very pretty to look at. Many people said canna lilies were brought in to Sibu by the American missionaries.
Lots of people in those days rode bicycles, so much so that at one time Sibu was called the Bicycle Town of Sarawak.
This is a great photo for remembrance. And an Iconic photo. Photographer is still unknown.
3 comments:
Many thanks for the great old photos and history of Sarawak. I recall how this looked when my wife and son, John, were with me as we arrived in August or Sept. 1965. Of course we stayed in the Hoover Methodist Guest House many times until we left Sarawak in 1979. Lots of good memories of that and visits to Sibu from the Ng. Mujong and Kapit.
Thank you for commenting. I am adding old photos of Sibu to my blog because I would like readers to have good memories of the days gone by.
Very often in the old days, we would give photos to family and friends and write at the back, "For remembrance". It was one of the phrases in English I learned when I was very young in Sibu.
Yes, a blog post is for remembrance. Thank you for helping Sarawak.
http://borneohistory.net/
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