原來，現在Raffles 所在的海邊路一號(No1. Beach Street)，一百年前真的是個海浪有可能漲到門前的狀態。當時是一個只有十個房間的  Bungalow，但嗅覺眼光都超獨特Sarkies兄弟，就看上了得天獨厚的地點與條件，向阿拉伯大地主-Syed Mohamed Alsagoff承租下來，做起旅館生意。

Who built Raffles Hotel?

By Jamie Ee Wen Wei

Books and newspaper articles have routinely attributed the building of the historical Raffles Hotel to the Armenian Sarkies brothers.

But now a descendent of the prominent Alsagoff family has come out to say that the records are wrong.

Mr Syed Muhammad Ghadaffi Alsagoff, 35, wants to set the record straight: He says it was his great- great-great grandfather Syed Ahmed who bought Beach House at No. 1 Beach Road in 1870, before it was converted to the Raffles Hotel. His great-great grandfather Syed Mohamed Alsagoff then took over the estate and expanded it in 1889.

'It is true that the Sarkies brothers managed the hotel under a lease from Syed Mohamed Alsagoff. But the Sarkies brothers did not expand the construction of what was originally a 10-room beach house into one of the first modern buildings with electricity in Singapore,' Mr Syed told The Sunday Times....