Summer retreat of JJ dos Remedios [1860-????]
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Submitted by Herostratus on Tue, 2018-08-28 09:50
Current condition:
Demolished / No longer exists
Date Place completed:
c.1860-01-01 (Month, Day are approximate)
Building was on FL24. Completed 1860. In June 1873 JJ dos Remedios sold part of the lot to the Missions Etrangeres de Paris to build Bethanie. Lot described as a large piece of land in Pok Fu Lam spanning the whole hillside from the Pok Fu Lam Road down to seashore.
Mr. Remedios has built at Pokfoohun a very fine summer retreat. There is a fine carriage road, and the piece of ground attached is being laid out in gardens
Source: The London and China Telegraph 1860-02-18 (Vol 2 - No 30)
Property became site of Hong Kong Dairy Farm
Comments
Picture of site
I have seen a much better resolution picture than this one but cant remember where.
Grateful if anyone can post it. I am not 100% sure that this is JJ dos Remedios house but the location fits.
I think one of the original gate pillars of this property still survives (Just!) amongst the rubbish bins on Pokfulam Road.
João José dos Remedios
Another early Portuguese settler in Hongkong did very well in business. João José dos Remedios ‘took with him a fortune’ from Macao in the 1850s and continued to prosper in Hongkong. He was an enterprising man and among his ventures was a shipping service, J.J. dos Remedios & Co. By 1867 he had a staff of six, and set up a subsidiary company, Remedios & Co., both companies trading as merchants. ‘It is 536 J.P. Braga, The Portuguese in Hongkong and China, p. 205; S. Bard, op. cit., p. 107. 179 said that at the time of his death his estate exceeded a million dollars – a vast fortune for that time’, sighed Braga.537 By the 1870s, the well-to-do of all communities were looking to escape the crowded confines of the praya district. Remedios was the first Portuguese resident to buy land in a locality then regarded as far from town. He acquired a Farm Lot at Pokfulam, where he built his family residence, with enough spare land for a sizeable flower and vegetable garden from which the family table was supplied with fresh produce daily. Pokfulam, high above the western extremity of the city, was well beyond the reach of the only public transport at that time, the sedan chair. 538 Braga added that ‘Mr. Remedios must have had considerable enterprise to build a home in such a far-off suburban district. But he was one of the fortunate few who could afford the upkeep of a small buggy and pony to provide the means of quick transport to the city and back for his ordinary daily business.
Source: Making Impressions The adaptation of a Portuguese family to Hong Kong, 1700-1950 Stuart Braga p179
Possible traces?
"Map 1896" at http://www.hkmaps.hk/mapviewer.html shows a building at roughly this location, marked "Ruined Bungalow". If the area hasn't been built on since, I wonder if any traces of the ruin or its foundations remain?