IT IS a relic from the British colonial era. But while many such bungalows have been successfully restored for modern use, this one has been empty for what looks like decades. Much of the top floor's plaster exterior has been replaced by rotting wood, windows dangling out by their hinges, or in some cases missing entirely. Every other part of the building is littered with trash and thick layers of dust and dirt. It is surrounded by a sea of unkempt green, weeds and shrubbery allowed to grow uncontrolled over the years by the forces of neglect, even as the rest of George Town passes it by.

It hadn't always like this. The Mission House was originally built by a missionary named William Macdonald of the Brethren Assembly, sometime between 1876 and 1878. The building stood next to a chapel, known as Mission Chapel. The Brethren were a non-denominational Christian movement, responsible for the establishment of the Gospel Halls throughout Malaya. The land had been purchased by Reverend JG Bausum and his wife, Maria, originally as an extension to a Chinese girls' school. The Mission House remained in use until 1938, when the church moved to Burmah Road, and would later become known as the Burmah Road Gospel Hall.

Mission House would spend the rest of the century ignored by passers-by and the march of progress. The only time people paid any real attention to it was in 1939, when the chapel was brought down to make way for a wider Farquhar Street. Every day, thousands would pass by the building, occasionally inquiring to themselves about that old, dilapidated building they have seen all their lives but know so little about, before it passes from their view and their memories once more.

References

• Farquhar Street Mission House and Chapel
• Four Highrises 
• More than Merchants: A History of the German-speaking Community in Penang by Khoo Salma Nasution

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