Phillips House [????-????]

Submitted by David on Mon, 07/23/2012 - 02:34
Current condition
Demolished / No longer exists

Can anyone pinpoint the location of this building? [2019 update: located at 32-34 Mody Road, see the comments below.]

Don Ady wrote:

Phillips House, not far off Nathan Road in Kowloon, was a hotel converted into a few offices and a number or flats rented by American Protestant missionary families. It was used by more than one denomination. The Zieglers were also there, though Laura and I do not recall seeing one another at that place.

Tony Banham wrote:

The Phillips House was on Carnarvon Road, though I don't know the number. 

HKGRO and the newspapers both return results, but just give the address as "Phillips House, Kowloon".

Photos that show this Place

1934 Phillips House, Mody Road
1934

Comments

Hi there,

I found this in Ady's writings:

Quote>>

At the time we were living on which is located at the end of Blendheim Ave which is the little street which if you are looking across the street from the Phillips House is on the left side. And at the end is Minden Ave. And at the other end of it, on the same side as Phillips House. Upstairs in the right flat, and our address was No. 1. Minden Ave.

End Quote>>

If one could see the junction of Blendheim Avenue from Phillips House then it must be quite tall if it was on Carnarvon Road.  I have no idea of where was Phillips House though.

Best Regards,

T

Hi there,

I think this photo might have shown the location or even the building in question.  However the imageis till too small to give anything clear enough.  Not even the original in Flickr.

Some more clues on this map.   I wonder if one of the mark-ups used to be Phillips house.  If only we have the index showing the name of the buildings as marked......

Best Regards,

T

Don has written again, saying he thinks it was just past the bend along Carnarvon Road from Nathan Road. By chance, that's where I'd put the marker.

The building there today is called "Friends' House" or 集友大廈, built in 1962.

Sometimes we see modern buildings have names that reflect the names of the previous building on the site. "Friends' House" sounds a bit like the Quakers' Friends Meeting Houses - I'm not sure if there is any connection, or it's just coincidence?

Regards, David

Phillips House looks indeed to have been at 32-34 Mody Road. Here's an image of a 1936 letter sent by Melville Jacoby, later to work as a journalist but at the time a Stanford student studying on exchange at Lingnan University, which was then located in Guangzhou on the campus of what is now Sun Yat-sen University. Mel frequently traveled to Hong Kong (and Macau) on weekends while at Lingnan.

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