Originally known as Bukit Cawa, Emily Hill was, together with nearby Mount Sophia, acquired by Charles Robert Prinsep who built a large 88-hectare (217-acre) nutmeg estate in the 1830s. The estate was advertised for sale in 1859 and, by the 1860s, had been broken up into parcels and sold. The land that was used to build Government House (now the Istana) had also been part of Prinsep’s estate. This photograph shows two reservoirs built on Mount Emily in 1878 to receive and filter water from the reservoir at Thomson Road and so provide fresh water to the town. In 1929, a larger storage reservoir at Fort Canning was opened and the Emily Hill ones adapted for other use.
