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 1908-10.
House 25 was a small bungalow, sturdily built because of typhoons, of locally quarried granite on a small promontory in the south of the island. It faced south for the sun and had servants' quarters at the rear.
Comparing the pictures from the 20s and early 30s, house #25 seems to have had a pitched 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 a Mission photo of 1911, House #25 is present (qv). Its occupant/owner is recorded as Rev D R Taggart, a member of the Reformed Presbyterian Churches China Mission. These missionaries between themowned/occupied at least 6 holiday villas on Cheung Chau, including numbers 2, 8, 14, 16, 23, & 25.
In the European owners list of 1938, the owner is recorded as Mr J M Dickson.
During the war, these houses were usually 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.
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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 1908-10.
House 25 was a small bungalow, sturdily built because of typhoons, of locally quarried granite on a small promontory in the south of the island. It faced south for the sun and had servants' quarters at the rear.
Comparing the pictures from the 20s and early 30s, house #25 seems to have had a pitched 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 a Mission photo of 1911, House #25 is present (qv). Its occupant/owner is recorded as Rev D R Taggart, a member of the Reformed Presbyterian Churches China Mission. These missionaries between them owned/occupied at least 6 holiday villas on Cheung Chau, including numbers 2, 8, 14, 16, 23, & 25.
In the European owners list of 1938, the owner is recorded as Mr J M Dickson.
During the war, these houses were usually 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.