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The rise and demise of Mount Vernon Columbarium

SINGAPORE — Come Sept 30, the curtains will fall on the Mount Vernon Columbarium, after an almost 60-year run which has seen the 7.1-hectare site become an intimate part of many Singaporeans’ lives. Here are its milestones over the years:

Mount Vernon, Singapore's first public crematoria, was opened on October 1962.

Mount Vernon, Singapore's first public crematoria, was opened on October 1962.

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SINGAPORE — Come Sept 30, the curtains will fall on the Mount Vernon Columbarium, after an almost 60-year run which has seen the 7.1-hectare site become an intimate part of many Singaporeans’ lives.

Here are its milestones over the years:

October 1962: Singapore’s first public crematoria opened on Mount Vernon to slow demand. It had only one service hall, which held about four cremations a week.

1976: As cremations became more widely accepted, 15 columbarium blocks which could house 3,000 niches were built.

1978: Two more cremation halls were added.

1987: The compound got its “high-rise” columbariums – a nine-storey pagoda and a two-storey church-style building.

June 30, 2004:  The crematorium at Mount Vernon ceased operations. This was after the Government in 2000 designated Mandai Crematorium as the place for public cremations.

The compound became known as Mount Vernon Columbarium instead.

2009: The government called a tender to lease out two of the three crematorium buildings at Mount Vernon to funeral parlours. Ang Chin Moh Group won the tender, while Singapore Casket clinched a separate bid to run two service halls.

May 30, 2010: Ang Chin Moh Group converted the two crematorium buildings to six service halls, which are run under the Mount Vernon Sanctuary banner.  

Sept 2013: The National Environment Agency and the Housing and Development Board jointly announced that the 7.1-hectare Mount Vernon Columbarium would have to make way, as part of plans to build a housing estate on the site of the former Bidadari Cemetery.

A new 1.1ha funeral parlour complex — to be located in a corner of the current one — will have four more service halls than the existing eight when it opens in 2024.

Sept 30, 2018: The complex, including its eight service halls, will be closed to the public.

 

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