USTDC

Photo of USTDC courtesy of Les Duffin

Friday, January 29, 2010

URGENT!

[Added on 1/30/2010]:  Please see my comment (#11).  Cathy had great success as a result of the suggestions provided here.  I'd also like to thank everyone who helped her find her way around her old neighborhood.

Don
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I just received an email from a woman who is visiting Taipei and wants to visit her old neighborhood today.  If you can help her, please either post a response to this piece or email me at USTDC(at)yahoo(dot)com.  Here's what she had to say:

Thank you for your website.  I live in Taiwan 1969-71 as a dependent.  For the 1st time in 40 years I have returned and have a day off tomorrow to go back to Tien-Mou where I lived.  It was near the US complex that had a theater, swimming pool, bowling alley, and teen club.  I’m hoping you remember this and can help me with the location as my house was very near to this site.
So far, in browsing maps, I am unable to find it.  So I have nothing to tell the cab driver who will probably be too young to remember it.  Of course, it is very likely that it no longer exists, but if I can get a street name, that may be close enough for me to begin my exploring.
Thanks for any help you can provide.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don, the only thing that I could think of that would have all these things would have been the old Naval Hospital in Tienmu. With all the research I have done, the only US Military complex in Tienmu was the Naval Hospital. If this sound like what she is looking for, then she will need to go to Shipai Road and Tienmu West Road intersection, walk up Shipai Road (north bound), but the Naval Hospital location is torn down, and the Veteran's Hospital built an extension building that does specialized research, the only thing left is the old tennis courts.

Scott (US MAAG)

Anonymous said...

Don: Don't remember the street name but there was just such a
complex off of Road 1 in Tienmu.
We used to bowl and swim there all
the time. The street ran to the right as you were heading up Road 1 in Tienmu.

Jim Sartor

Bill said...

Sounds like the new BOT area, There was a bowling alley, teen club, pool, and snack ar.

Today the Taipei American School is in that location.

Billtu

Misty said...

Lane 8 Tienmu East Rd and lane 776 Chung Shan Bei Lu. The taxi driver won't understand that so ask for Taipei American school and then walk round behind it.

That's where the theatre was - roughly.

Wish her luck because nothing looks like it did.

Anonymous said...

The new BOT housing in Tien Mu consisted of two compounds divided by the main road. As others have said, the area on the east side, which housed the theater, bowling alley, swimming pool, little league field and teen club, is now occupied by Taipei American School. The housing on the west side, where I lived, is now the site of a Japanese school. The Naval Hospital in a different area.

Sarj Bloom said...

I can't be any help for the lady, but I sure hope she finds the area and gets back to us ...maybe with some photos too.

Victor said...

>the only thing left is the old tennis courts
The tennis courts showed in the following link are not the old tennis courts. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=%E6%A6%AE%E6%B0%91%E7%B8%BD%E9%86%AB%E9%99%A2+%E5%8F%B0%E5%8C%97&ie=UTF8&ll=25.120609,121.523809&spn=0.003414,0.005488&t=h&z=18
The old tennis courts are south to the the hospital parking lot showed in the following Naval Hospital image, right next to the baseball field. They got torn down with the Naval Hospital as well. http://ustdc.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-naval-hospital-images.html

Bou said...

I'm so sad for her! I read the comments on how much has changed and I'm not sure I'd want to go back. I found my old house, and it may be all falling around, but I could virtually walk the area and definitely recognize things.

I hope she writes you back with pictures as sarj suggested! I'd like to hear what she found.

Unknown said...

http://americangisreturningtotaiwanin2009.blogspot.com/
Go down the left side and there should be a link for a trip to Tien Mou. And yes the Taipei American school is located there now. It was BOT housing for the
military.

Unknown said...

http://www.thismonthintaiwan.com/index1.html
If, in the future a question like this comes up, these booklets are
in every major hotel but in any case just click on the link and
go to maps.

Don said...

I just received the following email from Cathy, the lady who asked for help:

Don –

I will try to write something more when I get a chance, but here is a quick summary –

I was able to find the following:

-Old TAS site (now occupied by the Taipei European School, with all new buildings)

-New TAS site (on site of old US recreation complex, as identified by Misty)

-Approximate location of where my house used to be

-Tien-Mu tree and temple

-Also drove up Yang Ming Shan

I want to thank everyone involved in helping me with this. I could not have found anything at all without your clues and pointers. The people at my hotel were also very helpful in providing maps and giving directions to the driver. The poor guy had to drive all over the place looking for stuff!

At TAS, I was fortunate to run into their outreach person, who showed me around the new school, copied pages out of the yearbook, and helped me orient to the area.

I took pictures, but on my husband’s old camera so I can’t get them off till I get home. I will send some when I get there.

Thanks again,

Cathy