History
In the late 1920s, this structure and the entire block it stood on served as a complex for the Hui Bon Hoa family, surrounded by Rues d’ Alsace-Lorraine, Calmette, Hamelin( Le Thi Hong Gam) and d’ Ayot( Nguyen Thai Binh). During this time, four buildings were constructed to fill the Hui Bon Hoa complex, each named after the family patriarch and his three sons. Today, the Hui Bon Hoa and Thang Hung buildings make up the museum, while the Thang Phien building is currently being rented out and the Thang Chanh structure is, sadly, gone.
After their father passed, Thang Hung, Thang Chanh and Thang Phien took on leadership roles in the family business at various times. Thang Chanh was perhaps the most successful of the three brothers, purchasing large amounts of property in the southern hub. Born in 1877 in Quanzhou, he arrived in Saigon shortly after getting married and stayed there until his death in 1934. His brother, Thang Hung, was a year older and working in China when Thang Chanh passed.
Following Thang Chanh’ s death, Thang Hung returned to Saigon to carry on the family business. He stayed until his death in 1951. Throughout the rest of the 1950s, members of the Hui Bon Hoa family began to slowly move abroad, leaving behind the empire their ancestor had created. Though Thang Chanh never lived in his namesake structure, it was designed by a French architect for his wife and sons, who also cared for the business after his passing.
In addition to being Saigon’ s wealthiest businessman, however, Hui Bon Hoa was also known for his generosity. According to historian Vuong Hong Sen, Bichun writes, Hui Bon Hoa’ s firm offered low-cost housing to Saigon’ s less fortunate, and the saying“ ở phố chú Hoả” came to signify the local preference for living in a Hui Bon Hoa-owned property.
Today, traces of the Hui Bon Hoa legacy remain in several downtown buildings, including the Majestic Hotel, which was built by the prestigious company. Hui Bon Hoa also provided the funding and land for Tu Du Hospital.
By 1975, the entire Hui Bon Hoa family had left Saigon. Following the end of the war, the newly installed government took over the Hui Bon Hoa complex, turning it into an information and cultural center at first before opening the Fine Arts Museum in 1987 and permitting visitors inside in 1992.
Under the 1996 Vietnam War Convention, French citizens who owned property in Saigon prior to 1975 were eligible for some compensation, so the family also received some money from the French government for the Hui Bon Hoa complex.
Elsewhere in Vietnam, the original Hui Bon Hoa kept a family cemetery for his sons and their loved ones in Dong Nai province. A Chinese sculptor was hired to craft their tombs and a caretaker hired to watch over the graves. Thang Hung and Thang Chanh are buried there, among others, and as of 2014 the family tasked with watching over the graves was still there, too.
The MAG Vung Tau 9