St. Mary's Church

At the northern edge of the old Selangor Club Padang stands a red-brick church whose congregation once prayed in a wooden church on Bukit Aman hill. The former premises became too cramped, and the new walls were designed for one hundred eighty worshippers. Later, the church was given the bishop's cathedra and became the principal Anglican cathedral of West Malaysia. The foundation plaque can still be found on the facade today.

Among the people who paid for this Anglican church were two non-Christians. Yap Kwan Seng, the appointed head of Kuala Lumpur's Chinese community, made his fortune in tin mines. Thamboosamy Pillai, an entrepreneur and contractor from the Tamil community, also worked in tin mining and founded Sri Mahamariamman Temple. In eighteen ninety-three, both contributed money to St. Mary's building fund.

The first church with this name stood elsewhere. In eighteen eighty-seven, George Frederick Hose, an Anglican bishop, consecrated a wooden church on Bukit Aman hill with ninety-five seats. He dedicated it to the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. The present cathedral inherited both the congregation and the name from that building.

Six years later, the parishioners no longer fit inside. The church committee chose a site at the northern edge of the Selangor Club Padang, beside the Gombak River, and began raising money for a building with twice the capacity. Governor Cecil Clementi Smith, who was seeking government support for the construction, proposed that the Government of Selangor add five thousand dollars to the parishioners' donations. Yap Kwan Seng and Thamboosamy Pillai joined the same fundraising effort. Their money, earned from mines and contracts, went to a church for a community to which they themselves did not belong.

On February third, eighteen ninety-four, William Hood Treacher, the British Resident of Selangor, laid the first stone here with a silver trowel. A year later, Bishop Hose consecrated the completed church. It held one hundred eighty parishioners; contemporaries called it the first brick Christian church in the Malay States.

The church became a cathedral much later. In nineteen eighty-three, John Gurubatham Savarimuthu, Bishop of West Malaysia, declared St. Mary's to be his cathedral church. The word “cathedral” refers to a bishop's cathedra: services are held here, and the church itself serves as the principal church of the Diocese of West Malaysia.

The wooden St. Mary's on Bukit Aman is gone—the headquarters of the Malaysian police now stands in its place. Here, beside the former Selangor Club Padang, the brick church and the foundation plaque bearing Treacher's name remain. The name of the Virgin Mary was moved along with the parishioners; the walls for the congregation were paid for by the congregation, the government, and two city residents who prayed in other temples.