Current condition
Demolished / No longer exists
Date completed
(Year is approximate.)
I've put the first date we have an advert for.
Mr. & Mrs. Edwin Mackintosh (Swire / Tai Koo taipan from 1879) were living there in the 1880s.
They then moved up to "Tai Koo" on the Peak when it was finished in 1889.
Later place(s) at this location
Photos that show this Place
1865
1871
1874
Comments
Craigellachie, also known as Claymore
My understanding about Claymore House (also known as Clanmore) is that is was located in Pokfulam (located on the present day grounds of Chi Fu Fa Yen Housing Estate and the name Claymore Avenue remains) and was used as Butterfield & Swire's first Hong Kong Taipan's residence (Edwin Mackintosh - Hong Kong Manager in 1879, and later that year he became partner in the firm Butterfield & Swire) in the 1880s. In June 1885 Swire sold the house to the Nazareth community of Jusuit priests, and the Swie's constructed a Taipan house on the Peak in 1889. The villagers of Pokfulam called the house "Taikoolao" after the Chinese words "Tai Koo" the name that Swire atopted for their Hong Kong sugar refining company. Evidently Claymore had issues as a site known for the strange "Hong Kong fever", and after the purchase of the house several Jusuit priests became ill while living in Claymore, and eventually the Nazareth community moved to Richmond Terrace in Kennedy Town in April 1891 to escape the Hong Kong fevor of Claymore. Eventually Claymore was sold to the Dairy Farm Company and was demolished. I am trying to accss a photo of this house - will try to post shortly.
Sources:
Le Pichon, Alain. Bethanie & Nazareh- French Secrets from a British Colony. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2006.
"From the Archives: Bethanie, Nazareth and Claymore," Swire News (Summer 2007): 14-15.
photo of Claymore
Here is a photo of Claymore, date unknown.
Craigellachie was in mid
Craigellachie was in mid-levels not Pok Fu Lam
Adjoining Greenmount, was at
Adjoining Greenmount, was at one time the residence of the late Mr. Edwin Mackintosh the B. and S taipan, who rode in an open Victoria and pair right up to the fine drive to the house. Subsequently this lot became the property of the Rhenish Mission. It has been demolished and a block of European flats are in course of erection on the site. (c1933)
Mr E Mackintosh on the
Mr E Mackintosh on the prevalence of fever when he lived at Craigellachie is here (from page 13)
Edwin Mackintosh in the Jurors Lists
Summary:
He first appears in the list for 1880, though without any address.
The same details are given in the lists for 1881 & 1882.
The 1883 list does show an address, and that he was at Craigellachie, No. 8, Bonham Road (it actually shows 'Bonham Std' which would be 'Bonham Strand', but that is a typo as the following years show):
1884 gets the street right, and 1885 shows the same:
1886 just says Bonham Road:
1887 & 1888 show he's still in Craigellachie on Bonham Road:
Then from 1889 on he's moved to The Peak:
The same entry appears in the lists 1890-1892, but he is not shown in the lists for 1893 or 1894.
His final appearance is in the list for 1895. It gives the address as 'Beaconsfield', but all the jurors from Butterfield & Swire in the 1895 list give that as their address, so it would just have been a business address.