Chapter Two :
The Builder / Reverend Brother
Michael
St iosepn ' s Institution in about 1913 , built to the designs of Father Nain .
The expansion of St [ oseph ' s Institution in the first decade of the twentieth century was largely the work of one man . He was Brother Michael Noctor , an Irish-American of strong individuality and almost inexhaustible energy . He received his education and formation with the Brothers in the United States , and arrived from America in
November 1900 . For the next fourteen years he brought to SJI his passion for building , a deep faith and a remarkable capacity for bringing out the best in his colleagues .
Three other men played an important part in the story . One was a merchant prince and leader of the Straits Chinese community by the name of Tan Jiak Kim . Another was a Governor of the Straits Settlements , Sir John Anderson , GCMG . The third was a very unusual priest and amateur architect who , atthe time when he was most needed , was assistant priest at the Church of the Good Shepherd .
Charles-Benedict Nain was born in 1870 at Fargesles-Macons in southwestern France . He trained for the priesthood at the Society of Foreign Missions in the Rue du Bac , Paris . Ordained in 1894 , he came out to the ctiocese of Malacca in the same year . He was sent to the church of SS Peter and Paul which lies behind the compound ofStJoseph ' sInstitution . As well as being a good pastor he was an artist to his fingertips , and when he became the assistant parish priest at the Church of the Good Shepherd he placed his outstanding gifts as an architect at the disposal of the Convent and St [ oseph ' s Institution .
When Brother Michael arrived there was only one building of any size on the campus . This was the central classroom block of Brother Lothaire , which had been built in 1865 . The ground floor comprised the Parlour and the classrooms . The upper floor afforded accommodation for the Brothers and the Boarders , of whom there were about sixty . In the yard behind the school there was a large open shed which had been putupin 1872 tododutyasaHall . The yard contained little else apart from a few trees , and the boys scampered about on the bare earth , kicking up clouds of dust on dry days and , on wet ones , covering themselves and the floor of the school with rich , red mud .
Brother Michael ' s first improvement was a new dining and study hall for the Boarders on the Queen Street side of the quadrangle . He went to Father Nain for a design , and the result was a simple structure which was both practical and pleasing . He next enlisted Father Nain ' s help in designing the Brothers ' new bungalow at Telok Kurau , but the story of this house belongs to another part of our tale . By this time he had had to address himself to the problem of overcrowding in the classes , which had reached a critical stage .
The enrolment in 1900 was 426 . The numbers had been growing so fast that Brother Michael felt it was necessary to open a new class in 1901 . His predecessor had made plans for the adctition of a third storey to the main building . To this end he sought a Government grant of $ 6000 on conctition that the Brothers were able to match the grant dollar for dollar . The Reverend Brother Visitor had directed a Brother Joshua , who was the Director of St Xavier ' s , Penang , and who was well known in Singapore , to seek for subscriptions among the friends of Sjl . In six months he had collected $ 5700 , with the promise of several hundred more , so the project could go ahead .
At this point it was deemed advisable to consult the firm of engineers , Messrs Swan & McLaren , regarding the depth of the foundations before adding another storey . Their report was not reassuring enough to justify building upwards . The Brothers now decided to build two lateral wings onto the main block , and once more turned to Father Nain .
An order for two classroom blocks can seldom have been treated with more imagination . Father Nain curved the new wings outwards to form a semicircle in the baroque manner and at each outer end he designed a monumental doorway flanked by two tiers of fluted columns surmounted by a hood . Within the hood there is an escutcheon and swags of leaves in plaster . Tractition says the North doorway was once the entrance to the school .
The Builder , Reverend Brother Michael 9