Sunday, October 31, 2010

Agnes Keith House and Museum













former home of author Agnes Newton Keith, now restored as a museum


 The house where Agnes Keith used to live has recently been lovingly restored and turned into a museum as a tribute to her by the Department of Sabah Museum under the supervision of MS Stella Moo-Tan. It is located, in Keith’s own words, on the finest hilltop in Borneo, with a magnificent view of the harbour of Sandakan. The original house was destroyed in the war by the Japanese, and the present house, modelled largely after the war. Keith’s husband, Harry, was the Conservator of Forests. After the Keith’s departure in 1952, the house was occupied by mainly officers in the civil service until the early 1990s, when rumours of the house being haunted frightened away all occupants except the homeless. So for some years the house was neglected and became derelict, and it remained so until at the turn of the 21st century, when the Sabah Museum authorities decided to restore it.

            To get to the house, visitors should turn uphill into Jalan Istana just before reaching Sandakan town on the main road. The house is on top of the hill, about half a kilometer from JCI clock tower in a roundabout.

2 comments:

automidori said...

Aren't you not allowed to take pictures inside the house??

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