Toko Tio Tek Hong (Indonesian for 'Tio Tek Hong's Store') was one of the earliest modern

department stores A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appea ...

in colonial Indonesia, founded in 1902 by the prominent businessman

Tio Tek Hong Tio Tek Hong (1877–1965) was a colonial Indonesian businessman and record executive, best-remembered as a pioneer of the Indonesian music recordings industry and as the founder of Toko Tio Tek Hong, one of the country's earliest modern depar ...

(1877–1965). Its former premises are now a colonial landmark in

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

, capital of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. The building is located at the junction where the river

Ciliwung Ci Liwung (often written as Ciliwung; also as Tjiliwoeng in Dutch, Sundanese: ᮎᮤᮜᮤᮝᮥᮀ) is a 119 km long river in the northwestern region of Java where it flows through two provinces, West Java and the special region of Jakarta. ...

flows into the canal that channels flood water to

Ancol Ancol ( nl, Antjol, zh, 安恤) is a coastal lowland area located to the east of Kota Tua Jakarta in northern Jakarta, in Indonesia. The coastal lowland stretched from Kota Tua Jakarta to the west and Tanjung Priok to the east. Today, Ancol contai ...

Marina. It has been renovated recently.

History

In 1902, together with his brother Tio Tek Tjoe,

established Toko Tio Tek Hong at Jalan Pasar Baru No. 93 in Passer Baroe at the heart of the fashionable Weltevreden neighbourhood. The Tio brothers came from a prominent family of the 'Tjabang Atas' gentry that counted among its members their much-older cousin Tio Tek Ho, the 4th Majoor der Chinezen of Batavia. The new business was one of the earliest modern department stores in Indonesia: it sold a wide range of merchandise labelled with non-negotiable fixed prices, an unusual practice at the time. Toko Tio Tek Hong prospered and during the 1910s, the Tio brothers acquired adjoining land and twice rebuilt the department store, first in 1911, then again in 1916, inaugurating the present building in 1917 to coincide with the store's 15th anniversary. In 1927, the department store celebrated its 25th anniversary; the popular newspaper ''

Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië ''Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië'' was a Dutch-language newspaper published on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). Originally called ''De Indische Courant'' (one of a number of papers with that nam ...

'' declares:

"The firm was the first to have a large modern retail space, a pleasant change from shophouses and market sheds; its opening was an event in the history of the capital. What Tio Tek Hong has been to Batavians of ''tempo doeloe''
ormer times Abalone ( or ; via Spanish , from Rumsen ''aulón'') is a common name for any of a group of small to very large marine gastropod molluscs in the family Haliotidae. Other common names are ear shells, sea ears, and, rarely, muttonfish or mutton ...
can best be seen from the fact that they used to say: 'If it is not available at Tio Tek Hong, then do not try it elsewhere. You won't get it anywhere."

However, the Tio family also borrowed money to make their property investment and was hit hard by the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

of the early 1930s. Their business survived until perhaps the 1950s, but on a more modest scale. Today, the building that used to house this pioneering department store has become a local historic landmark in modern-day

Gallery

File:Tio Tek Hong and his family.jpg, The businessman Tio Tek Hong with his family, mid-20th century. File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM wasvrouwen en wasbazen aan het werk in het kanaal langs de Postweg Batavia TMnr 10014872.jpg, Canal view of the rear side of the building. File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Wasbazen en wasvrouwen aan het werk in het Ciliwong kanaal (kali) bij Pasar Baru langs de Postweg TMnr 60001164.jpg, Another view focusing on a group of local cloth-washer in the canal.

References

{{Reflist Colonial architecture in Jakarta Buildings and structures in Jakarta Commercial buildings completed in 1902 Dutch colonial architecture Tio family of Pasar Baroe

History

Gallery

See also

References