Armenian Church, Singapore

The Armenian Church of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, referred to locally as the Armenian Church, is the oldest surviving Christian church in Singapore, located at Hill Street in the Museum Planning Area, within the Central Area. The church was completed in 1835 and consecrated the next year. Originally a parish of the Armenian Apostolic Church, an Oriental Orthodox denomination, the last Armenian parish priest left in the late 1930s as Armenian population in Singapore dwindled. It was designated as a national monument in 1973. Armenian and Oriental Orthodox services are now regularly held at the church.

The church was commissioned by the first twelve Armenian families that settled in Singapore. It was designed by George Drumgoole Coleman, the architect of many of Singapore's early buildings who also became the first Superintendent of Public Works. The church is dedicated to St Gregory the Illuminator, the first Patriarch of the Armenian Church. The Armenians were among the earliest merchants and traders to arrive in Singapore after Sir Stamford Raffles established it as a trading port in 1819. The community already held religious services in Singapore by 1821, and the first priest, the Reverend Krikor Hovhannes (Gregory John), arrived in July 1827. A temporary chapel was set up at the back of John Little & Company at Commercial Square (today's Raffles Place). The community started to raise funds for the construction of a new church in 1827. Over half the construction cost of 5,058.30 Spanish dollars was donated by the Armenian community in Singapore, with the rest coming from Armenians in Java and India, and a small portion from European and Chinese merchants in Singapore. The Armenian community was very small – the 1824 census counted only 16 members, and 34 in 1836 when the church opened – its contribution to the Armenian Church was therefore considerable in proportion, an indication of the prosperity and religious devotion of the Armenians. A request for land to build the church was made by the Armenian community in 1833, and the government granted the land at the foot of Fort Canning in 1834. The foundation stone was laid on 1 January 1835 by the Supreme, Archimandrite Reverend Thomas Gregorian, who also opened and consecrated the new church on Easter Sunday in 1836. He was assisted by Reverend Khachig Hovhannes, the priest for the local community. It is the oldest surviving Christian church built in Singapore. The church has undergone a few modifications since it was first built. A bell turret designed by Coleman was deemed structurally unsound, and it was replaced first by a square tower in 1847, then again replaced in 1853 with the spire as it appears today, which was designed by George Maddock. In 1905, a two-storey bungalow was built in 1905 by Nanajan Sarkies in memory of her late husband, John Shanazar Sarkies. In 1909, the church became the first building in Singapore with electricity.

The Armenian population in Singapore dwindled, and the last Armenian parish priest left in the late 1930s. In the late 1960s, when the Christian Cemetery at Fort Canning was cleared for a park, early Armenian tombstones there were moved into the Memorial Garden at the church ground. Tombstones from Bukit Timah-Cavenagh Road cemetery were also moved here. A number of tombstones of prominent Armenians in Singapore, such as members of the Sarkies family of Raffles Hotel fame, Agnes Joaquim who bred Singapore's national flower and Catchick Moses who founded the newspaper Straits Times, are placed here. The Memorial Garden however was never used as a burial ground. Armenian Street is named after the church and it was known earlier by its Chinese name seng poh sin chu au meaning "the back of Seng Poh's new building" (Tan Seng Poh was the fi

Church data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).