At the beginning of the 20th centurymissionary organisations operating in China found that Cheung Chau was an ideal setting for holiday villas for their missionaries and there was a building flurry in 1910-11.
Villas were mostly single storey, sturdily built because of typhoons, of locally quarried granite on little promontories in the landscape. They invariably faced south for the sun and had servants' quarters at the rear. In a Mission photo of 1911, House #25 is present (qv). It's occupant/owner is recorded as Rev D R Taggart.
Comparing the pictures from the 20s and early 30s, house #25 seems to have had a timber roof with tiles which was replaced by a flat concrete roof by 1939. A common problem with timber roofs was destruction by white ants, so concrete roofs were a sensible solution.
In the owners list of 1938, the owner is recorded as Mr J M Dickson.
During the war, these houses were stripped of wood for fuel by the locals, then blown up by the Japanese as being western-owned.
The above post records that the house was owned by a missionary family named Decker in the 1950s.
Today the site is occupied by two semi-detached houses.
Comments
Scott Boyle writes that a
Scott Boyle writes that a missionary family named Decker lived in this house in the 1950s.
Number #25 origins
At the beginning of the 20th century missionary organisations operating in China found that Cheung Chau was an ideal setting for holiday villas for their missionaries and there was a building flurry in 1910-11.
Villas were mostly single storey, sturdily built because of typhoons, of locally quarried granite on little promontories in the landscape. They invariably faced south for the sun and had servants' quarters at the rear. In a Mission photo of 1911, House #25 is present (qv). It's occupant/owner is recorded as Rev D R Taggart.
Comparing the pictures from the 20s and early 30s, house #25 seems to have had a timber roof with tiles which was replaced by a flat concrete roof by 1939. A common problem with timber roofs was destruction by white ants, so concrete roofs were a sensible solution.
In the owners list of 1938, the owner is recorded as Mr J M Dickson.
During the war, these houses were stripped of wood for fuel by the locals, then blown up by the Japanese as being western-owned.
The above post records that the house was owned by a missionary family named Decker in the 1950s.
Today the site is occupied by two semi-detached houses.