Ban Sila Suwan

Baan Sila Suwan is a two-storey golden-teak mansion in the Tha Chalom subdistrict of Samut Sakhon, completed in 1922 during the reign of King Rama VI. An ancestor of the Sila Suwan family had worked at Vimanmek Mansion in Bangkok, and the family built the house in deliberate homage to that palace, blending traditional Thai structure with European gingerbread-style woodwork.

The house is substantial — about 28 metres wide and 16 metres deep — with a steeply pitched hip roof, decorative lacework gable openings, carved gable ribs and twin exterior staircases to the upper floor. The frame is entirely teak, and the exterior detailing remains intact after restoration. It’s one of the largest surviving wooden structures in Tha Chalom and reflects the prosperity the community once held as a seafood-trading port.

Inside, interconnected rooms display antique porcelain, mother-of-pearl pieces and other artefacts collected by the family over generations. One notable piece is a scale model of an early motorised boat, locally described as one of the first of its kind to work this stretch of the Tha Chin River — a link to Samut Sakhon’s history as a steamship-era trading town, though sources differ on the boat’s exact name and provenance. A descendant of the original owners, the Thai novelist Krittana Asoksin, is said to have spent time in the house as a child and drawn on it in her later fiction. Interior access isn’t always guaranteed; some visits find only the exterior and grounds open if a family caretaker isn’t present that day.

Insider Tip: Call 0 3441 2992 before making a special trip out to Tha Chalom — it confirms whether the interior rooms will be open that day, not just the grounds.

Watch out: This is a family home turned informal museum, not a staffed attraction with fixed guided access — hours and interior access can be less consistent than a state-run site.

The surrounding old-town lanes of shophouses, seafood stalls and Chinese shrines are worth exploring before or after a visit, along with the nearby Wat Yai Chom Prasat and the Mahachai Market and municipal port further along the Tha Chin River.