Earlier notes about this building:
Tngan:
Base on the map, the present day location of House #27 is the Xavier House, Ignatian Retreat Centre. It is still be listed as #27, Peak Road, Cheung Chau. The main entrance is on the Tin Fok Pavilion side. There is a back door facing #27A, however.
Fivestar:
Many thanks tngan. Is this the original house or a newish building?
Tngan:
The location marked House #27 in the old map is not the main building of the present day Xavier House. Its location appeared to be sort of an annex to Xavier House which looked like a kitchen of sort. The building looked post WWII. If you refer to recent maps or the Map Search of Hong Kong Map Service, you should be able to compare see it clearly.
Actually there are a few photos at the Xavier House' Website showing the house sitting where House #27 used to be. Please go to the link and scroll down to the photo of Fr. Walling SJ. The building right behind him is the one.
Tung Lin:
A 1959 photo of cheung chau has the House #27 right in the picture centre, as it was the only building situated on top of the small hill surrounded by a forest of pine trees. ie
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/47038431
Nearby and partially hidden from the sight, there is also a new, and much larger building ,supposed to be an expansion of the #27's institute. By the way, House #30 ( just outside the right edge of this photo on the hill) was known as the Radar Station and had staffs in military uniform visiting regularly. Upper part of this photo was also the flight path for the air traffic flying to Kai Tak. Most of the planes would lower the landing gears from above the north-side of House #30 and # 27, on a would-be landing descent toward the Police Station , passing over some places so low like less than two hundred feet.
Usually from my backyard, I saw the airplane coming down towards me from the same direction where House# 27 stood. Almost like going to crash on our village !! Then the airplane flew directly over my house . It went on for many times daily for many years even after I moved to oversea in the early 1970s.
Once the plane left the island airspace, it would retract the landing gear and climb up for a normal flight at a much higher altitute to the Stonecutter Island, then to the Kai Tak Airport. Probably this flight practice was in use when House#30 operated a NDB facility for incoming airplanes.
From 1974 (?) a different flight route over the sparsely populated north-island was adopted when a VOR station was set up on one of the hill-top there . And there was no more runway-in-slight descent for those air traffic.
House#27 reminds me of those descending air traffic over my house! It was a terrific experience. Thanks Heaven!!!
Tung
Photos that show this Place
Comments
European House #27 on 1930s Cheung Chau
Hi,
About the famous Houses in the Fairy Well area of Cheung Chau.
The House #27 appeared in the photo of ' http://www.gwulo.com/node/7410 ' as the one in the left of the foreground. The picture must be taken from a higher ground around the site of Houses #29 and #30. Its background in this photo , maybe 1/3 miles away, would be the European Houses on top of the ridge by Kwun Yum Wan. From here to the West was the London Mission and couple more missionary houses.
The other foreground house by the middle, ignoring the one under construction near the photo's bottom line is the House #28, as found out recently on new information. I still have some memory based on the childhood pastime in this particular area.
At around 1960s, as in Gordon670's photo , ' http://www.panoramio.com/photo/47038431 ' in which both Houses of #27 and a bigger building were added to the #27 site. So stood two Houses on the same lot. Due to the quietness of the building group one can consider the area as a college campus or a retreat site on the island prior to the Caritas in the Fa Peng area.
I have a family photo posted in reply of Laura's ' Mysterious Rocks on Cheung Chau ' which is likely taken from the same site or nearby. You can google search and see that photo. There was no property fencings in those years, and people could be free to trespass around as few would meet any trouble.
Today one of the two Houses on Lot #27 has been long gone and the Tin Fook Villas are standing below its backyard, the roll-off of hill there. What remains on this site today is the Xavier Retreat House. The property seems to be the biggest land user in the Fairy Well area.
It is good to remember the old beautiful hills. I can hear the sound of music coming from there, all the times.
Don't you?
Tung
T.H. Rousseau
Some information about T.H. Rousseau who is listed as residing in #27:
https://gwulo.com/node/20809
Soldier's Furlough Home at House #27
In 1928, a Soldiers' Furlough Home was organized whereby soldiers could obtain a rest and enjoy a vacation during the summer. The Soldiers' holiday camp at House No. 27 proved to be very popular.
Soldiers could obtain information and tickets from the Cheer 'O Naval and Military Y. M. C. A. at the City Hall.
Source:
European House #27
"The alterations to Houses No. 18 and 24 are almost completed, while extensive repairs have also been done to Nos. 27 and 27A." China Mail 27 March 1933 refers
1940 American School Kikungshan staff occupation
In 1940 the Directory of Protestant Missions has the Rev Paul S and Mrs Ruth Backlund, staff of the American School of Kikungshan, Henan, living in House #27 after the school moved to Cheung Chau in 1938. An article written by him from Cheung Chau, Hong Kong October 8, 1939, for the Covenant Weekly Magazine shows he was on the island then, and in 1940 he performed in the Cheung Chau Concert (August 1940).
1938 Soldiers' Camp
The holiday camp on Cheung Chau was no longer used by military personnel due to a cholera scare/outbreak. Hong Kong Telegraph 9 September 1938 refers. See here
A view of House #27 on Facebook
Noticed a view of House #27 on Facebook from 1937: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1639311162816368/posts/25943755628611916/
The Rousseaus ownership to 1951
European House No. 27 became the Rousseau family’s refuge from the intensity of their Hong Kong ministry — where Talmadge and Eva Belle could relax with their five children, recover strength, and plan the next phase of Pentecostal Holiness Church work.
Listed in 1938 under “Mr T. H. Rousseau,” the house was referred to as the summer house, implying that their real base lay in the city, while No. 27 served as a place where the superintendent of South China missions could briefly step out of the busyness of Shaukiwan and Wanchai.
In 1939-40 the Rousseaus were in India and the house was occupied by the Backlunds (see above). The Backlunds must have left before the Japanese invasion.
During the Japanese invasion the Rousseaus returned from India to the USA, but they came back to Hong Kong after the war in 1946 and used the house until Talmadge Rousseau's unexpected death in 1951.
The Jesuits' ownership 1952 to present day
In 1952 Irish Jesuit (Catholic) missionaries purchased the former family bungalow at 27 Peak Road, and enlarged it.
It was first used as the Xavier House Language School, and it served for two decades as a training base where young missionaries learned Cantonese and prepared for pastoral work across Hong Kong.
In 1979 the Jesuits redirected its purpose, transforming the building into a dedicated Ignatian retreat centre, hosting retreats, formation programs, regional assemblies, and community gatherings. Today it offers accommodation for around sixty people with multiple meeting rooms, continuing its mission of prayer, reflection, and spiritual refreshment for visitors from Hong Kong and beyond.