The house was originally designed in 1934 for a remarkable couple, Mrs. and Mr. L.W. Geddes. Both Australians, they had met each other in the late 1920s in Yangon (Myanmar) where Doris – after trying her luck at Hollywood – was working as pianist at the famous Strand Hotel and Leonard was supervising the construction of the ‘finest motor establishment in the East’ for the Singapore-based automobile company Wearne Brothers Limited (WBL). They soon settled in Singapore where the Great Depression was taking its toll now.

When some year later trade was taking a turn for the better again, the couple decided to build their own house and bought the plot on the corner of Swettenham and Ridout road, overlooking the valley to the northwest. This area of town, so close to the military Tanglin barracks, was developing fast since the municipality had taken over the former rubber plantation to build houses for the growing number of officers and their families. It was turning into a quiet residential neighbourhood. Why the couple chose exactly this spot and asked Frank Brewer to design their house, is unknown.

Sure is that Doris carefully decorated the house. Soon it bustled with people and activity. While Leonard was working as director of WBL and later as municipal commissioner too, Doris gained a reputation as a fabulous hostess. Besides playing the piano, golf, bridge or mahjong  and attending ‘tiffin’ (lunch), ‘pahit’ (cocktail) and dinner parties – the typical ‘mem’ activities in Singapore – she organised huge charity shows. First mainly to help the Children’s Aid Society and later, when the threat of war became more imminent, to entertain Australian soldiers. At some point she even invited twenty airmen for songs and satay to the house.

Not long after, the house fell silent. Leonard had found a new love and had taken her with him on his retirement to Australia. Before the divorce was final, he had already sold the house to a Chinese rubber magnate. Doris stayed in Singapore until the Japanese invaded and then fled last minute to Australia via Sumatra. After the war she returned and opened ‘The Little Shop’ at Raffles Hotel. It became an instant success: ten years later she was known as Southeast Asia’s first couturier had already dressed celebrities like the Sultanah of Johor and Elizabeth Taylor. Meanwhile, the house had fallen into Dutch hands.