Historical placeHo Chi Minh City · VN
Khu Di Tích Lịch Sử Đốc Phủ Đẩu (Nhà cổ Trần Văn Hổ)
On a riverside street in old Thủ Dầu Một, the Tran Van Ho Ancient House—known locally as the house of Doc Phu Dau—opens a window onto the wealth and taste of southern Vietnam at the close of the 1800s. Built in 1890 for the family of a timber magnate whose son held one of the highest colonial-era posts in the province, it is one of Bình Dương's most finely preserved traditional homes and a nationally listed architectural heritage site. Walking its timber halls, you read a whole world in wood: sacred carved altars, inl-shell couplets, and rooms arranged around the family altar exactly as they were more than a century ago. The house sits at 18 Bạch Đằng Street beside the Saigon River, a short walk from the bustle of Thủ Dầu Một market—pairing 'then' and 'now' on a single stroll. Its T-shaped (chữ Đinh) frame, thirty-six hardwood columns resting on stone plinths and walls of rosewood and padauk make it a living classroom of Nam Bộ carpentry, Confucian morality and merchant-era prosperity.