The Hotel Malaysia (left foreground) at Cuscaden Road was initially known as the Cuscaden House Hotel before it was bought over by Hotel Malaysia Limited, a subsidiary of the Goodwood Group headed by prominent banker and hotelier Tan Sri Khoo Teck Puat (father of film director Eric Khoo), in 1973. The hotel was renamed in 1975 following renovation works. In an attempt to upgrade its image, the hotel underwent another name change in 1983 to become the Boulevard Hotel Singapore. The property and the land it occupied were sold to the Hong Leong Group for $410 million in 1997. The hotel ceased operations in 2000 and was subsequently demolished to make way for the Cuscaden Residences condominium project.Orchard Road, located in the central region of Singapore, began as a small country lane in the 1830s surrounded by nutmeg plantations, with spice gardens, pepper farms and fruit tree orchards later sprouting up in the area. Its name was thought to have been derived either from the orchards that once flanked either sides of the lane, or from a Mr. Orchid, who was a plantation owner in the area. By 1860, there were only a few nutmeg plantations left in the area following the worldwide drop in nutmeg prices. The areas surrounding Orchard Road were subsequently developed for residential purposes, with private houses and bungalows common along nearby Scotts and Tanglin Roads. One of the first major retailers to setup shop in the area was the Singapore Cold Storage, which opened a grocery shop along the street in 1905. However, major development of the area only began in the 1960s and by the 1970s, Orchard Road had been transformed into the tourist and shopping belt it is today.
