St. Joseph's "Complex" and Wah Yan College on Robinson Road | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

St. Joseph's "Complex" and Wah Yan College on Robinson Road

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Submitted by C on Wed, 2014-11-19 06:50

There was a cluster of buildings, which were confusingly all named "St. Joseph's", at the eastern end of Robinson Road.  These include St. Joseph's Terrace, St. Joseph's Building, St. Joseph's House and St. Joseph's Mansion.  I recently found a map on uwants.com which can clarify the location of the buildings in what I coin as the St. Joseph's Complex.

St. Joseph's Terrace:  See photographs in Posts 1522 and 1523 on this uwants.com page.

St. Joseph's Building:  Gwulo page
By the way, I think the photo shown on this page is actually St. Joseph's Building, and not St. Joseph's Terrace as suggested by the title of the page.

St. Joseph's House:  I cannot find a good photo of this house.  Is it the 3-storey house just to the left of the cathedral tower?
See the photograph g3.jpg in Post 1533 on this uwants.com page.

St. Joseph's Mansion:  Gwulo page
On the map, it had been renamed Caritas Valtorta House.

Wah Yan College Hong Kong:  Photographs of the Wah Yan College Hong Kong between 1921 and 1955 typically show the St. Joseph's Mansion.

According to Lawrence Tsui (see here), "WYHK moved to the old St. Joseph's premises in 1921, occupying the highrise building and the adjacent classroom block which was extended under Tsui's supervision."  It only started using St. Joseph's Mansion as the original tenants moved out.

My understanding (which may be incorrect) is that the main building of Wah Yan College was located on the site of St. Joan of Arc School on the map.  Can Lawrence Tsui or someone familiar with the area confirm that please?  Does any photograph exist?

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Wah Yan College Hong Kong
St. Joseph's Terrace
St. Joseph's Building
St. Joseph's House
St. Joseph's Mansion
Caritas Valtorta House
St. Joan of Arc School
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Submitted by Lawrence Tsui on Wed, 2014-11-19 07:45.

As far as I know, WYC was the highrise which was in the Uwant map, Valtorta House, as well as the Classroom Block which was, in the same map, SJoA School.  The highrise was used by WYC as its boarding house.  My father had a room there overlooking Glenearly below according to his memoirs (way before Rimondi was built next to it).  I studied at St Joan of Arc School for a couple of years in the mid-50s.  We were using the Classroom block mainly.  However, the school office was at the lower levels of the highrise and the school hall was in the basement of the highrise.  We were aware that the upper floors of the highrise were used as a hostel for men (if I remember correctly), thus presumably the highrise became known as the Voltorta House.  Hope this help.  

Some people who lived in the residences below also posted some photos of the various blocks recently in a FB forum.  I was surprised to find out that there were indeed more clusters than I thought. 

Submitted by C on Wed, 2014-11-19 08:48.

Hi Lawrence,

Thank you for the clarification!  So I checked the SJoA web site and saw a photograph of a seemingly 2-storey building.  Please see the one in 1955 here.  Was this the classroom block of Wah Yan College?  Have you seen a bigger and clearer photograph of it anywhere?

And I suppose the site of Raimondi College has been unrelated to Wah Yan College?

Do you mind giving me the name or link of the Facebook group forum you mentioned?

Thanks again.

Submitted by Lawrence Tsui on Wed, 2014-11-19 09:46.
Yes, these were the SJoA premises which I believe were WYHK. The classroom block was 3-storey if I temember correctly. In addition, there was an additional covered playground below, adjacent to the open playground. There was a spiraling open staircase at one end near Sacred Heart College. An internal stair was in the middle. I think from Robinson Rd, only two upper storeys could be seen.

Submitted by Lawrence Tsui on Wed, 2014-11-19 09:50.
The website is Hong Kong in the 60s.

Submitted by David on Wed, 2014-11-19 20:41.

I've tinted a photo to help work out what's what:

http://gwulo.com/atom/19871

1930s Catholic Cathedral
1930s Catholic Cathedral, by Admin

Upper level:

  • Red: St. Joseph's Mansion (later named Caritas Valtorta House)
  • Blue: St. Joseph's Building
  • Yellow: Is it another building, or just the end of St Joseph's building?

Lower level:

  • Green: St. Joseph's House?
  • Orange: St. Joseph's Terrace?

Regards, David

Submitted by C on Wed, 2014-11-19 22:24.

Hi David,

This is a great idea which makes things much clearer.  Thanks!

I think both blue and yellow are St. Joseph's Building, and I agree with you that orange is St. Joseph's Terrace.

A part of the building tinted green is directly under Caritas Valtorta House (St. Joseph's Mansion) but the map from the late 1960s does not show any building there.  If it is St. Joseph's House, maybe half of it was demolished before the map was drawn?  I am just guessing...

Submitted by David on Fri, 2014-11-21 15:08.

Agreed about the blue & yellow both belonging to St. Joseph's Building.

I'm not sure about the green building either. Hopefully a photo from another angle will arrive, and give us the answer.

Regards, David