The librarian’s on it

I wrote earlier about the 'drug lord' turned philantropist Tan Seng Poh and his mansion near the Armenian Church, and about how I asked the National Library's "Ask a librarian" librarian to locate the site of Seng Poh's house.

He's (the librarian, not Tan Seng Poh) emailed to tell me that he and his colleagues are on the case, and that though they haven't any answers yet, they'll be looking through Chinese archives and material from the pre-1900s for possible information:

Dear Sir,

At this moment I’m still unable to locate Seng Poh new build­ing.
Infor­ma­tion (in Eng­lish) on Tan Seng Poh is lim­ited. I’ve looked at old
Sin­ga­pore maps as well as the Straits Direc­tory from the period before
1900, but so far no luck yet. I’ve enlisted the help of my Chi­nese
col­leagues to help with the Chi­nese resources, and hope­fully we shall be
able to pro­vide the answer to your enquiry soon.

Thank you.

I’ve known about this reference library service since the Rambling Librarian pointed me to it when I had a previous question not resolved through rigorous Googling and Yahoo Answering, and I think it's a great resource of last resort. I emphasize the phrase "last resort". At least Google it first, can?

Technorati Tags: Tan Seng Poh, NLB, history, sin­ga­pore