History
Th e Legacy of H ui B o n H oa
by Saigoneer. Photo by Alexander McMillan.
It’ s fairly common knowledge that the city’ s Fine Arts Museum was once home to old Saigon’ s wealthiest family, however few people know that much of the sprawling Hui Bon Hoa complex was not actually built until after the great patriarch’ s death.
Hui Bon Hoa, widely known as the richest man in old Saigon, was born in 1845 in China, according to the blog Saigon Cho Lon. Chen Bichun, the author of a 2014 piece on the history of Hui Boa Hoa ' s family, spoke directly with Fernand Hui Bon Hoa, a fourth-generation member of the storied clan to learn about Hui Bon Hoa and his descendants.
As a 20-year-old man, Hui Bon Hoa left Fujian province for Saigon, taking a job at a local pawn shop owned by Frenchman Antoine Ogliastro. By 1887, he had become a naturalized French citizen and began expanding his business holdings to several pawn shops and real estate ventures. The original patriarch had three sons, Thang Hung, Thang Chanh and Thang Phien, all of whom were born in China but joined their father’ s business in Saigon after they grew up, helping to grow the family’ s empire.
However, while Hui Bon Hoa himself is remembered as the founder of the family business, it was his sons who actually developed Chu Hoa’ s firm into such a successful company. After decades in Vietnam, Hui Bon Hoa returned to China and passed away in 1901.
His business, however, remained. The Societe Immobiliere Hui-Bon-Hoa( SIHBH) was registered at 97 Rue d’ Alsace-Lorraine – now 97 Pho Duc Chinh – in the heart of downtown Saigon. You’ ll recognize this as the address of the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Museum, which was built decades after Hui Bon Hoa’ s death but is still known as Nhà Chú Hoả, or Uncle Hoa’ s Mansion. When it was first constructed, this building functioned as an office on the ground floor with living quarters upstairs and was considered among the city’ s most luxurious and innovative buildings thanks to its combination of eastern- and western-style architecture.
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