Historic Preservation of BOT Housing

Kent Mathieu (Taipei Air Station Blog), John Crum (Taipei Signal Army Blog) and I are trying to help a group of folks in the Taipei area who are in the process of preserving and restoring a number of the old Bank of Taiwan (BOT) housing units that were home to many American military families from the 1950s through the 1970s.  Kent has summarized the request by the preservationists and explains how many of you may be able to help them in this effort.

Their idea was to repair and restore these old homes to a semblance of their original condition, maintaining the landscape, foliage and openness of the area.  The area would become a protected “Historical Village” where visitors could see the homes as they looked during the period the US Military resided in them.

These homes are unique.  They were designed and constructed with the idea in mind of replicating a typical home found in  US sub-divisions in the 1950s.  Since our departure in 1979, many of these homes have fallen into disrepair.  Some of them have already been brought back to life.

The courts in Taipei have asked for certain information showing who lived in these homes.  It has been 33 years since these homes were occupied; many folks from Taiwan have forgotten who lived in them.  Can you please help us?   If you resided in any of the homes maintained by the Bank of Taiwan (BOT,)  please send us your information as shown in the document below.  Please E-mail your information to:   TaipeiAirStation@yahoo.com.

The compiled listing will be furnished to the court to confirm that US personnel did live in these homes through the years.  This is a very important, key document, in the effort to save these homes from being destroyed.  Please take a few moments to send your information to Kent.  Everyone associated with the project appreciates your help.  Kent will update as this project proceeds.

You can see what information the courts have asked for, as seen below, in this document.

The Subject line of this Document (In Chinese) reads as follows – Loosely translated:  Data Records from the Taipei City Government, Cultural Department, regarding American Military and Families etc..........

The Headings of the Columns on the Form – loosely translated:

• House Number
• Resident Name and Information
• Residing (Yes) or (No)
• Length of Stay
• Remarks

Please forward your information as shown below:

F203      Martin, Jack  Col USA  MAAG  Yes   1965-1968        No remarks

Please help us with this, if we can furnish enough information, some of the homes will probably be saved.  Our presence in Taiwan will be remembered by those citizens of Taiwan who have no idea we were ever there.  I get mail off and on from college students at NTU who discovered that some of the buildings at the National Taiwan University once housed the US Military.  They had no idea!  

Let us hear from you.