[Updated 16/May/2026]
The building is a similar build to House 14, which is early 20th century, built sometime before 1924.
It is situated on the east side of Fa Peng down the hill from 14, and for that reason it cannot be seen in any photos of Fa Peng taken from the west.
Very like House 14,the walls are rendered granite and all its windows are metal framed.
The roof is flat reinforced concrete. Like House 14, it's in a ruined state.
According to the 1919 ground plan, this was an annex for domestic staff behind the main building, which was plain-fronted and south-facing towards the sea. At some point later on, a verandah was added.
On the 1923 picture of this house we see a small cottage on the east side of the house, with a pitched, tiled roof, making this a large property and suitable for rental purposes (see below).
On the back of the 1923 picture of this house, Ethel Olson wrote, 'The bungalow belonging to the old missionary who has lived here for five years and planted all the trees and plants around the house. He sort of superintends the island." This was most probably independent missionary Allan Mackenzie, who was recorded as the owner of this house in 1924, see here, and described as 'Cheung Chau's bachelor.' Going by Ethel Olson's description, he moved there in 1918.
In the 1938 list of European owners of houses on Cheung Chau, the owner of House 13 is given as Mr A H Mackenzie.
Don Ady's account has him as a 'cranky mean old miser,' who was not popular, living alone in his stone house. He adds that in 1939 Mackenzie got some new boarders, a missionary family named Thompson, whom he treated meanly*. He possibly lived in the cottage at #13 and rented the house out.
The Directory of Protestant Missions 1940 says that in that year, Rev L A and Mrs Buuck, staff of the American School of Kikungshan, Henan, lived in House #13 after the school moved to Cheung Chau in 1938. The school moved back to China later in 1940, but it looks as though the Buucks stayed, as they were interned in Stanley in 1942. By this time Allan Mackenzie may well have moved to House #12A as that is given as his address in his obituary in 1941.
The aerial shot of 1963 shows the building apparently still in use. Today it would appear the front property has been demolished and the rear property is abandoned.
*Rose Reiton's diaries (1930-34) give quite a different picture of him. Here he is regarded as a friend of the Reiton family, stopping over with them in Kowloon, present at family birthdays and other occasions, and giving generous and thoughtful presents at those birthdays. Perhaps in the late 1930s he had a change of character? He died in 1941 at the beginning of the war.
Photos that show this Place
