History
In 1899, the last year before the dawn of a new century, three Sisters of the Congregation of the Holy Infant Jesus stepped off the steamship anchored at Port Swettenham. It was 25 January 1899. Reverend Mother St. Levine, accompanied by Sister St. Sabine and Sister St, Madeleine, had come on a mission to establish a school in Kuala Lumpur.
The first Convent school was located in Nonya Ah Yok's garden shed, and the Sisters lived on the first floor of her country house by the River Gombak on Ampang Road. The site is directly opposite Bukit Nanas, future site of what would become the Mother of Conventsin Selangor. On 1 March 1899, the Convent School in Kuala Lumpur officially opened with a dozen children. Many of the early pupils were children of immigrants working on the railway lines. By the second year, there were 60 day pupils and orphans and not enough room at Nonya Ah Yok's house. The occasional hazard of crocodiles on the banks of the Gombak Rver made the move imperative.
To the rescue came Towkay Goh Ah Ngee who gave temporary residence to the Sisters and the children at his house in Semenyih. He also approached the Government for approval to start a lottery to enable the Sisters to buy Victoria Hotel in Brickfields. Towkay Goh, as one of the benefactors of the Convent, continued to help the Sisters, even providing a carriage and pony for their grocery shopping.
On 15 January 1901, Victoria Hotel- once the venue of annual general meetings of the United Planters' Association- became home to Reverend Mother St. André, 17 sisters, 60 orphans, 22 boarders and 100 day pupils. There was also a creche for 12 babies. Word of the Sisters' good work spread, and increasing numbers of pupils crammed the school. By 1911, there were 308 children, prompting the Inspector of Schools to recommend that new classrooms be built. Instead, the Sisters chose to move to Bukit Nanas, a prime location and one of the best settings for a school anywhere in the world.
Read more about this topic: Convent Bukit Nanas
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