Dilkusha House, Seoul

Dilkusha House was built from 1923 as a residence for Albert Wilder Taylor, an Associated Press correspondent who telegraphed news of the Jeam-ri massacre to the world during the March First Movement of 1919, and his wife Mary Linley Taylor; it has architectural value as a historical space that illuminates the life of a notable figure and the conditions of the era. Albert Taylor had lived in Seoul since 1910, and in 1919 he brought the March First Independence Declaration and the Jeam-ri massacre to the attention of the outside world, spreading news of Japanese atrocities internationally. In particular, he hid a copy of the Independence Declaration, found on a hospital bed at Severance Hospital, beneath his newborn son's crib, evading the colonial authorities to pass word to the world through the foreign press, and from this went on to support Joseon's anti-Japanese independence movement. As a result he was imprisoned for six months at Seodaemun Prison before being deported, and he died in the United States in 1948. The house is an H-shaped, brick building of French-bond construction with one basement level and two storeys above ground, notable for an unusual brickwork pattern on its exterior walls: a kind of rat-trap bond, in which one course is laid with the stretcher face showing and the next alternates stretcher and header faces. The plan consists of two gable-roofed wings flanking a central section with five columns in a row and a front veranda; of the central section's four bays, the leftmost contains the entrance, hall and a projecting semicircular staircase, while the other three form a great hall fitted with three double-leaf glass doors. The east wing houses a dining room with a fireplace, the west wing has two children's rooms (later used as guest rooms) each with its own bathroom and dressing room, and the rear holds service areas such as a food store and other storerooms. The second floor follows a similar layout; from the central drawing room one could look down over the city and the mountains beyond, and on clear days as far as the Hangang River. The basement was used to store wood, coal and wine, and contained a fireplace, a large portable stove and an ice box (see Mary Linley Taylor, Chain of Amber). The windows and doors are a mixture of sash windows set into the outer wall, casement windows and sliding windows, and the floors are wooden.

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Where it is

Region

Jongno-gu, Seoul

Designation

Registered Cultural Heritage · 국가등록문화유산