A+building+that+we+would+like+to+preserve+as+a+National+monument

__**Criteria**__
We have came up with a set of criteria to decide whether a building is suitable to be a national monument and we feel that these criteria should be considered when deciding whether a building is suitable to be a national monument. We feel that a building should strongly satisfy at least one of these criteria to be suitable as a national monument. These criteria are: a) Historical Value. This means that the building has an influence on, or is influenced by past historical events, It could also be that the building is a contribution or contains contributions of Singapore's early pioneers. Often, national monuments reflect so greatly on a country's history, that it is still considered significant even after going through changes in its architectural design. Thus, we feel that this is the most important criteria. b) Economical value. This means that the building generates revenue for the country due to many ways such as tourism. We chose this criteria as we felt that it should be importnat that the monument still has some purpose in it, apart from representing our heritage. c) The building must have some of its original infrastructure left untouched and preserved.

**__Write-__** **__U__****__p__**
The building that we wish to select as a national monument is **The Fullerton Hotel Singapore**.

We wanted to select this as we felt that The Fullerton Hotel Singapore contained historical significance towards Singapore, and deserve the recognition. The building is currently located near the Singapore River. Despite it currently being a lavish five- star hotel, it actually had humble beginnings. The building was originally named as The Fullerton Building, after Robert Fullerton who was the first governor of the Straits Settlement. It was officially on 27 June 1928 by Sir Hugh Clifford who was the governor at that point in time. He was also the one who gave The Fullerton Building its name.

The Northern part of the Fullerton Building covers Fort Fullerton, a fort built way back in 1829. It is used as a preventive measure, to defend the Strais Settlement from any possible attacks from the sea. The Singapore Stone was once at where Fort Fullerton is but was later blown up to pieces to make way for Fort Fullerton. The Singapore Stone can be considered as one of the most important and interesting artefact ever found in Singapore as it contains writings on it that up till now, no once has been able to decipher. Some believe it to be Javanese while others believe it to be in Tamil but there has been no real translation of the writing, A fragment of the blown up piece of the Singapore Stone is currently being displayed in the National Museum.

At that time, the building was rented out to only 5 organizations and companies, namely the General Post Office, The Exchange, Singapore Club which was later renamed to Singapore Town Club, the Marine Department and the Import and Export Department which later became the Ministry Of Trade and Industry.

The main tenant of the Fullerton Building is the General Post Office as it occupies an entire two floors with postal halls, offices and sorting rooms. At the bottom most floor, there was a large conveyor belt which was connected to the pier where mail that goes to other countries can smoothly enter ships to be sent away. Another tenant of the Fullerton Building is the Singapore Club. The club is lavish and high- class and occupied the top floors of the building to maintain comfort and privacy to the members who dined and wined there. However, the Singapore Club was soon forced out of the building by the Economic Development Board (EDB) as part of a series of major overhauls in the country.

The Fullerton Building also had much involvement in the World War 2. After the invasion of Singapore from the Japanese soldiers, the Fullerton Building was used as a temporary shelter and hospital for British soldiers who were injured and needed to seek treatment. Also, Governor at that time Sir Shenton Thomas and his wife stayed there for a period of time during the Japanese Soldier to seek cover and protection. Japanese soldiers also conducted raids in the Fullerton Hotel to capture the British who were seeking cover there such as Sir Shenton Thomas. The Fullerton Hotel was the place where General Percival famously discussed the possibility of a surrender to the Japanese which did happened later. During the World War II period, the Fullerton Building was used as the headquaters of the Japanese Military Association in Singapore.

After the World War, the General Post Office no longer occupies the Fullerton Building, after the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore became its new tenant. In 1997, there was a project going on, which is to change the Fullerton Building into a hotel after it was acquired by Sino Land company. The entire cost of the renovation as well as the construction of a commerical complex next to it, 1 Fullerton, is estimated at around $300 million dollars. Even after it became a hotel and the interior changed drastically, the building's exterior has been preserved and did not go through any construction. For example, the building's neo- classical forums and high- ceiling verandas still remained unchanged. The tunnel under Fullerton Hotel which used to send mail from the General Post Office to ships, is still there.

We feel that the Fullerton Hotel fulfils our criteria of having historical value. The Fullerton hotel was originally the Fullerton Building and it was important for Singapore that there is a General Post Office which could distribute mail around the world as mail was one of the world's major communication system, at a time where computer and telephones were not as common. More importantly, it covers the Ford Fullerton. What is so special about this fort is the fact that it was where the Singapore Stone once is and the importance of the Singapore Stone cannot be over emphasised, as it is considered as a National Treasure. With the Singapore Stone now destroyed, and only part of it on display at the National Museum of Singapore, the Ford Fullerton and Fullerton Hotel is able to effectively reflect our country's history and the Singapore Stone.

The Fullerton Hotel, located at the mouth of the Singapore River, reflects on Singapore history as in early Singapore, trade and life revolved around the Singapore River. It was treated as a business district and where Raffles created the first tradng port. This shows that the Fullerton Hotel can reflect Singapore history at the Singapore River, thus fufilling the criteria of the building having historical value.

During the Japanese Occupation, the Fullerton Hotel (then Fullerton Building) was an important place and had an influence on the entire Japanese Occupation in Singapore. It was used as a hospital, then a shelther for famous and important British officers. Also, the desicion to surrender to the Japanese was made there and the Fullerton Building was later used as the headquarters of the Japanese Military Association in Singapore. From all these, it can be seen that the Fullerton Building has high importance and influence throughout the entire Japanese Occupation from the start to the end. Thus, I can conclude that it has historical value.

The Fullerton Hotel still has economical value now. Unlike most national monuments where the main mode of economic activity is tourism, Fullerton Hotel generates value by simply being a hotel. The Fullerton Hotel functions like a normal hotel, providing accommodation to its guests, and earn money from the process, and thus it has economical value.

The Fullerton Hotel also fulfills the last criteria of having part of its original infrastructure unchanged. Up till now, the exterior infrastructure of the building has not been change since it was constructed and this helps to preserve a heritage, that is not lost and gone through time. Instead, it is carefully preserved.

With all the above reasons, we feel that the Fullerton Hotel should be gazetted as a national monument.