Situated in “old Surabaya”‚ this stately Dutch colonial-style compound was built in 1862 and is now a preserved historical site. Previously used as an orphanage managed by the Dutch‚ it was purchased in 1932 by Liem Seeng Tee‚ the founder of Sampoerna‚ with the intent of it being used as Sampoerna’s first major cigarette production facility.
The compound consisted of a large central auditorium‚ two smaller buildings on the east and west sides and numerous large‚ single story‚ open-space structures behind the central auditorium. The side buildings were converted to family residences and the large warehouse-like structures were used to accommodate facilities for tobacco and clove processing‚ blending‚ hand-rolling and packaging‚ printing and finished goods processing.
A member of the International Council of Museums.
Today‚ the compound is still functioning as a production plant for Indonesia’s most prestigious cigarette‚ Dji Sam Soe.
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The founder of Sampoerna, Liem Seeng Tee, c. 1951
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The Journey Begins
The story of Sampoerna begins in 1898 in the Fujian Chinese village of Anxi.
It was in the late spring of that year that Liem Tioe bought passage on a cargo sail boat heading south to the Indian Ocean for himself and his two young children, a girl aged six and a boy aged five. Only the three of them boarded the ship bound for Indonesia because the mother of the two children, Tan Sie Nio, had tragically passed away the previous winter. It was her death that seemed to have prompted Liem Tioe to seek a milder climate, more promising working conditions, and a new life for his young family. On its voyage south, the boat stopped briefly at the ... continue
The Beginnings of the Business & Family
The young Seeng Tee worked solidly on the trains for 18 months without a day off. Although the work was physically demanding, it enabled him to save enough money to buy a second-hand bicycle. This was a significant purchase for the young Seeng Tee because it gave him the mode of transport he needed to start a new business plying charcoal up and down the streets of Surabaya. During his ... continue
Then a tremendous opportunity presented itself in early 1916. Seeng Tee was
given the opportunity to purchase a large quantity of various blends of tobacco from a tobacco trader who had gone bankrupt. The one seemingly insurmountable condition of the purchase was that cash settlement had to be made by the end of the next day.
Dejectedly, Seeng Tee returned to the stall that evening to tell his wife about the lost opportunity. It was simply impossible to finance a purchase of that magnitude in the time allowed by the Bankruptcy Commission. After an extended discussion with Tjiang Nio, however, she agreed that this was an opportunity that could not be missed. She fetched a small stool from the back of the stall and used it to reach ... continue
The Formal Beginnings of Sampoerna 
By 1913, Seeng Tee and Tjiang Nio’s small business had grown to the point where it was informally incorporated under the name Handel Maatschappij Liem Seeng Tee, which evolved into Handel Maatschappij Sampoerna a short
time later. After World War II, the company’s name was changed again, this time to PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna, substituting the Indonesian language for the original Dutch but keeping the pre-War initials, HM. For Seeng Tee, it was important his products catered to all levels of the population,
so in addition ... continue
Taman Sampoerna
Seeng Tee and Tjiang Nio’s house under the railroad bridge which had been razed by fire and rebuilt eventually had a third storey added to accommodate the addition of two daughters to the family, Sien, born in 1921, and Hwee, born in 1926. The family remained in this house until 1927 when a house and small ware-house were purchased for cash on Jalan Ngaglik No. 9 which was then located on the very outskirts of Surabaya. It was at the Jalan Ngaglik house and warehouse that Seeng Tee spent much of his time testing different blends and combinations of ... continue
Sampoerna Theatre
When first saw the large central building of the ex Dutch-supported orphanage complex, Tjiang Nio, always the thrifty one, asked Seeng Tee what he planned to do with the huge central building.
Seeng Tee immediately announced that he would convert the central hall into a theatre, which he did.
Sampoerna Theatre was built to contain the only rotating stage with a false floor in all of Java, providing dramatic special effects rarely seen at the time. As one of the finest ... continue
* Excerpts from Sampoerna Family History, originally compiled by John N. Meeks on the occasion of Sampoerna's 81st Anniversary in 1994. Full version of the story first appeared at the 1994 Annual Report of PT HM Sampoerna Tbk.
fonte: @edisonmariotti #edisonmariotti http://houseofsampoerna.museum/
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