딜쿠샤
TIMELINE
01.
construction started in 1923
02.
completed in 1924
03.
Destroyed a fire in 1926
04.
rebuilt in 1930
05.
Restored in 2020
ABOUT DILKUSHA
HISTORY
In 1919 during the South Korean independence movement against the Japanese colonial rule, Albert W. Taylor, a Nevada-born businessman in South Korea's coal mining industry, and his British actress wife, Mary L. Taylor, witnessed crucial moments in Korean history. They built Dilkusha, a two-story red brick house, in 1923, but it was reconstruted in 1930 after a fire.
Ultimately, following their banishment by imperial Japan in 1942, Dilkusha went through various ownerships until it was left neglected. In 2005, Taylor's son, Bruce, sought his childhood home, sparking public interest. After Bruce's death in 2015, Seoul 's city government transformed Dilkusha into a museum dedicated to the Taylors. The house, a national heritage site since 2017, reopened in 2021 after a four-year renovation, featuring over 1,000 donated artifacts from the Taylor family.
THE TAYLORS
Albert W. Taylor
Born in 1875 in Nevada, Albert Taylor arrived to Korea in 1896 as an American businessman and engineer overseeing gold mines across Korea.
He additionally worked as a reporter and was recruited as a special correspondent for the associated western press to cover King Gojong's funeral in February 1919. Taylor became the first to report on Korea's Declaration of Independence against the Japanese colonial rule in Western press. While visiting his wife and newborn on February 28, 1919, he discovered a bundle of papers stashed under the hospital bed. Those papers were revealed to be hidden copies of the declaration. With his near fluency in Korean, Taylor was able to recognize the documents and smuggle them under the bed of his newborn son while the Japanese police searched the hospital.
Within hours, Taylor wrote an articlle, and smuggled it to the United States with the help of his brother William, who hid the document in his shoes to escape the watch of Japanese authorities. Taylor covered significant events during Japan's colonial occupation, including the brutal Jeam-ri Gyeonggido massacre in 1919 and the trials of independence fighters the following year.
Twenty five years later, in 1942, the Taylors were deported under a foreigner deportation directive issued by the Japanese Government-General of Korea. Before their departure, Albert spent the last six months at a concentration camp as a citizen of an enemy country of Japan in the Pacific War, and despite a desire to return to Korea, he passed away in California in June 1948.
Mary L. Taylor
British actress
On Feb 28, Mary L. Taylor, spouse of Albert Taylor, gave birth to their son Bruce Taylor at the Severance hospital near Seoul station. Mary, alongside being an actress was also fond of art. During her time in Korea, she was experimental with her artwork especially with more traditional Korean style art. With many of her pieces still remaining preserved in the Dilkusha home, her pieces capture the essence of her talent and grace. Mary also kept a memoir, which was revealed
to have contained records of finding several copies of the declaration in her hospital bed. During the last 6 months before the Taylor's deportation, Mary was confined to their house.
And with three months after Albert's death, Mary buried his remains next to his father at the Yanghwajin Foreign Missionary Cemetery in Seoul. In 1982, with one final visit to Dilkusha, she then returned to California, where she ultimately passed away.
