Hoein Government Office Naea, Boeun

This house is said to be the naea, the private residential quarters attached to a local government office, where the magistrate of Hoein County once lived. The dongheon, the public hall where the magistrate conducted official business, formerly stood on the site now occupied by a church, but is said to have been sold to the church and demolished around 1952. Records show that Hoein was made a county in 1413, the thirteenth year of King Taejong of Joseon, when a magistrate first took up his post, suggesting that a naea may have existed from that time, although no precise record survives. Whereas the dongheon was the public space in which the magistrate carried out administrative affairs, the naea was a private space. The naea was therefore generally located at the point furthest from the entrance of the government compound, and, being the residential quarters, it followed the same kind of floor plan as the main women's quarters of an upper-class house. During the Japanese colonial period, Jo Seok-gu acquired the Hoein dongheon naea when it was sold off, and lived there; thirty-five years ago, the present owner, Lee Jong-hwi, purchased it and has lived there ever since. While Jo Seok-gu lived there, the decayed lower sections of the pillars were cut away, lowering the height of the building, and after Lee Jong-hwi purchased the house, glass windows were installed across the front of the daecheong, the main wooden-floored hall, along with other partial repairs, but the floor plan retains its original form. The house has an L-shaped plan. The master bedroom and kitchen are arranged to the north of the daecheong, and the geonneonbang, a side room facing the main room, lies to the south. To the south of the geonneonbang is a toenmaru, a narrow wooden veranda, half a kan (a traditional structural bay unit) in size. At the front, a numaru, a raised, open timber-floored porch connected to the daecheong, is set about one ja (a traditional unit of length) higher than the daecheong, with a hamsil-agungi, a fully enclosed firebox-type hearth, installed beneath it. The one-kan space of the geonneonbang adjoining the daecheong was originally part of the daecheong itself but has since been converted into an ondol, a heated-floor room. New materials have been partially used in the lower sill rails and wall surfaces, and the pillars have been lowered, showing many traces of partial repair. Even so, the thickness of the structural members and the woodworking techniques used clearly display the old-style craftsmanship of the late Joseon period, and the floor plan retains its original form. Although the owners have carried out partial repairs while living in the house, the original members used in the interior framework and roof survive, the floor plan dating from the time of initial construction retains its original form, and the thickness of the members and the woodworking techniques clearly show the old-style craftsmanship of the late Joseon period.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Boeun, Chungbuk

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료