After looking through my photos, here are the ones that I think give some idea of what the New BOT housing compound in Tien Mu looked like. As I said, we lived in BOT 106A which was the first unit in from the main street and was separated from the street by a concrete wall. The photos were taken in 1976 and 1977, though we lived there until our departure in June 1978.
Bill-USACC
ReplyDeleteGreat Pics. I had the first house on the other side of road (TAS), right at the corner of Rd3 at the light. Its seems like everyone bought a bamboo fence!
My sister found our house on Grass Mountain doing a Google "stroll." It don't look too good no more. Heh. And the houses behind ours are all overgrown with...foliage.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the exact location of this housing area? Up on Yangmingshan or down in the Tienmu low areas? I live in Tienmu across from the Veteran's Hospital. From where I live I can throw a football to the old location of the US Naval Hospital.
ReplyDeleteI am researching "US Military Presence in Taiwan 1951-1979"
Apologies from the other "Anonymous," if that's where the confusion came from. I was recalling my Yangmingshan house, whereas Les' pics are the Tien Mou housing.
ReplyDeleteI am researching "US Military Presence in Taiwan 1951-1979"
ReplyDeleteI would guess the pictures would be about half a block south of the Japanese school.
So does anyone know about the history of Tienmu pre-US presence?
ReplyDeleteI've always been interested to know where the link with the US presence in Tienmu starts. Was there a Japanese military location there before 1945 or was it just an easy place for the Bank Of Taiwan to requisition land.
Misty: Can't swear to it but the
ReplyDeletestory we were told when we were in
Taipei BOT housing was that the
structures were built by the Japanese as witnessed by their having a deep, concrete bomb shelter in their yards. These had
a steel cover over the entrance that was lifted for access to the
bomb shelter.
That's the story we were told so make of it what you will.
Jim Sartor
Jim. You sure it wasn't the septic tank? That's the only concrete structure I ever saw outside a Tienmu house.
ReplyDeleteMy question is, why did the BOT aquire large areas of Tienmu? Was it purely because it was agreed that it was a suitable place to house MAAG/US AID workers or was there another reason?
It's easy to answer this question if you look at a pre-1945 map of Taipei or any other city because the land 'aquired' by the Taiwan government was usually used by the Japanese establishment for military/commercial purposes. So was there anything significant in Tienmu?
http://www.taiwan-panorama.com/print.php?id=%202006129512106C.TXT&table=0 1951年美軍顧問團規劃小組、建築師沈祖海，與國府人員共同乘坐直昇機，攜帶台北市地圖在空中盤旋，尋找適合興建美軍宿舍的場所，最後選定陽明山山仔后與天母兩處作為興建地點，政府遂命令台灣銀行進行土地徵收與興建作業。(In 1951, MAAG and Taiwanese officials chose Yangmingshan and Tienmou to be the housing areas of the US military workers.)
ReplyDeletehttp://epaper.culture.gov.tw/0033/content181.html 天母一帶，由於有陽明山屏障，阻擋冬季冷瑟的東北季風、夏季涼爽，當時就規劃作為美軍眷舍(Tienmou was chosen because of its weather condition.)
Misty,
ReplyDeleteAs you are aware there were two seperate BOT areas in Tien. I was lucky enough to have lived in both areas. The OLD BOT ara was past what we called the Tien Mou tree and up towards the bus station. Those homes were orginally built by the Japanese and had bomb shelters in each yard.
The new are built in the 50's is where the TAS and JAS schools are today. They did not have bomb shelters and were built for the MAAG personal. Yes the did have septic tanks. Home this helps.
Bill
The Yangmingshan bomb shelters were a good place to capture/collect toads. :)
ReplyDeleteBill,
ReplyDeleteI am Scott Ellinger, the US Army officer currently stationed at AIT.
I have been researching the "US Military Presence in Taiwan 1951-1979" and have collected my articles and stories from other.
As part of my research are all the old housing areas. I am a marathoner and have many routes, which three are up on Yangmingshan. I usually pass thru the housing areas next to Cultural University. It breaks my heart to see them in such dis-repair. When I look at these current photos, looks like they are up on Yangmingshan... maybe I am wrong.
Scott
Scott. The Yangminshan/Grass Mountain houses are similar but they were normally for higher ranking servicemen.
ReplyDeleteThe houses in these pictures were in Tienmu and occupied the sites where the American & Japanese schools are currently. Effectively, the land occupied by the school was/is Bank Of Taiwan owned hence BOT.
The Yangminshan/Grass Mountain houses are similar but they were normally for higher ranking servicemen.
ReplyDeleteOr if there were four or five kids
in the family.
Bill:
ReplyDeleteSince you asked about location, I think I can help. If you'll look at Don's earlier post entitled "Tien Mou in 1984, Part 1" the fourth photo in that series shows fresh brick work in the sidewalk. I took that shot because those bricks filled in what had been the entrance to the lane I used to live on. You can see the Japanese school building behind the wall on the left.
wow, what memeories. i remmeber both areas as a child as i lived in both yanmingshan and teien mou and then later peitou. we lived next door to what was then the japanese embassy in yangmingshan and across the street that wound up yms lived my good friend at the time who was chaings grand daughter by the chinese white russian marriage. i def remmeber the major diff between the military presemce of 1972-73 and when we finally left in '75. i went back to see my dad in '79 and spent more time with fiends in the phillipines and then when the official pullout happened i had to go back to taiwan from the phillipines as my dad and step mom were worried about whatever. i remember the screaming and yelling when i got back around the airport. my stepmother was really petrified cuz she didn't knowwhat was going to happen since she was married to an american. sorry, i'm rambling.
ReplyDeleteQuinn, this whole blog is all about rambling on -- especially my comments!
ReplyDeleteYour first-hand observations are most welcome here and if you'd like to expand on anything, please feel free to drop me an email with your comments and I'll be happy to post them as a new article.
Don
ty don and in my previous post i def meant friends not fiends!
ReplyDeleteo wow anon hit it on the head! the bomb shelters could snag you major reptiles and amphibs. i had like 8 snakes and all sortsa of other stuff at home that i had caught. When we'd venture into the bamboo forests @ Yangming shan(at that time at least) you could run into a bomb shelter easily. Also at McCauley there were lots too. I remember my buddy and I swimming with the sea snakes at McCauley that place was awesome!
ReplyDeleteHi there...I was a 5-7 year old Navy dependent 1975-77 living in Tien Mou while my dad was a Naval Intel Officer with the USTDC. I was wondering - does anyone hav any info on a small dead-end-road cluster of four two-story houses occupied by US officers in Tien Mou? We lived in one of those houses, and I was wondering if they're still standing. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWhen my Dad was stationed in Taiwan, June 1965 to June 1967, we lived in Tien Mu for the first year, then we moved to Grass Mountain for the remaining time. In Tien Mu, the houses all had concrete walls with a red wooden gate for the sidewalk and a double wooden gate for the driveways. Up on Grass Mountain, the bomb shelters were in every yard. To the rear of our house there was a village, and further down was a college.
ReplyDeleteFun to find this post and read the comments. We lived in "old" Tien-mu when we were stationed in Taipei in 1956. We moved into the army housing near the American elementary school a year or so later. I've got a few old pictures of the neighborhood, including a couple after a typhoon.
ReplyDeleteI too lived half way up Grass Mountain in a terraced housing are, not official government housing. Later moving to Tien Mou. Actually my first residence was in a spot called Lucky Village in Taipei. 1963-1968. Great experience. My oldest son attended St Vincent De Paul Nursery School, run by Phillipino Nuns in Tien Mou. Anyone remember that area?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Harold Goings (Flip) and my father served in the United States Airforce (Harold Goings senior). We were stationed in Tiawain from 68-70.The photos bring back so many memories; I started crying. Living with the people of Tiawan was so enriching during my childhood days.
ReplyDeleteWe lived in the BOTs that was what us kids called the base housing area in Tien Mou. Baseball was the greatest sport for my brothers and I. It seems that we could always get a game strated with the local childeren of Tiawan.
I attended Domican Republic School and TAS along with my other brothers and sisters.
Perhaps you can get this sort of site on Facebook and maybe some some folks will remember thier days in one of the greatest places on earth. any thoughts
I have good news for you, Harold. I started a USTDC group on Facebook some time ago! Just go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/181370945250687/
ReplyDeleteand request to join the group. I'll approve it as soon as I get it.
Best regards,
Don
Hi, I was a child living in the "old" Tienmu BOT's that had the bomb shelters in front yard, between 1964 and 1967. Father was in Army at the time. I would live to see photos of the old BOT's along with the swimming pool, bowling alley and movie theater that was close by.
ReplyDeleteI lived in Tien Mou from 66-68, my father was stationed at the air station. We lived in Happiness Villiage. I remember the movies, the pool. Get on the bus and go. Times were great back then, adventure everywhere. Cheesway and sour balls, star apples and so on....and in 68 the baseball team I played on beat the Taiwan team that came to the U
ReplyDeleteS and won the LL world series. OOO I could go on...remember the plane that clipped the bamboo coming in from japan during a typhoon
My sister was born in the naval hospital. I remember going to the air base to take judo on Saturday mornings. Fire works were cheap and worked all the time because they were fresh.
ReplyDelete