Demolition of historic Palmerah building halted

JAKARTA (JP): The demolition of a Palmerah house built in 1790, was halted yesterday at the request of the city's museum and history agency.

The halt, authorized by the development supervision agency, came only after the historic house on Jl. Gelora IX in Central Jakarta was all but demolished.

Indra Riawan, an official of the agency, said the building is a protected site under the 1992 law on historical buildings, even though it is not listed under a 1993 gubernatorial decree.

The building, categorized as a country house in the Gelora subdistrict of Tanah Abang in Central Jakarta, has been neglected for several years.

Residents said the building's owner, Hendra, reportedly ordered it torn down after failing to sell what is known to locals as the "Aryo Jipang house".

The Aryo Jipang family was the last party known to claim ownership of the house. A legal dispute in the 1960s favored the heirs of a previous owner, but the descendants of the Aryo Jipang family have tried several times since to claim the house.

"We are waiting for the owner to show up so we can start talks," Indra said at the site near the Gramedia publishing complex.

An official from the artifacts protection directorate at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Saeful, said Hendra should have informed the government of his demolition plan.

"The owner must have known it is a protected building," Saeful said at the site.

Museum and history agency officers tried to document the house in 1991, and again in 1994.

"The owner didn't let us in, saying ownership was being disputed with the heirs of the previous owner," Saeful said.

They managed only to document the facade of the building.

According to The Historical Sights of Jakarta by Adolf Heuken, the house was built in 1790 by a high-ranking Dutch colonial official, Andries Hartsinck. It once sat in the midst of coconut and nutmeg plantations.

The next owner was Han Tian Kit, a rich Chinese landlord whose property stretched from the Senayan stadium to Tanah Abang. His fiefdom included landless workers who paid rent by working in the nearby paddy fields, plantation and coconut oil factory.

A belfry to call workers to lunch, now on the grounds of the small Gelora subdistrict office standing in front of the house, is about all that now remains of this part of Jakarta's history.

The legal dispute is known to be between the Aryo Jipang family and Han's heirs.

Food stalls, and then a garage, operated in the front yard of the neglected house until a fence was built around it last year.

"The problem will be tackled by the artifacts protection directorate," Indra said. (anr)