Lin An-Tai Old House: Dismantling a House, Moving Nothing from Taipei

30-Second Overview: The Lin An-Tai Old House was originally located at No. 141 Siwei Road in Da’an District, Taipei. It was dismantled in 1977 due to the widening of Dunhua South Road. After passing through temporary storage on Anhe Road and under the viaduct on Heping West Road, it was finally reassembled in Binjiang Park. It preserves material evidence of a Qing Dynasty Anxi immigrant residence and a Minnan courtyard, but also leaves behind the problem that relocated preservation cannot fully carry away the original site’s landscape and way of life.

Caption: Adam Jones, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0. Original image and licensing details at Image Description Page. Image not modified.

Image Description Page

Caption: Bernard Gagnon, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Original image and licensing details at Image Description Page. Image not modified.

Caption: Bernard Gagnon, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA Multiple License. Original image and licensing details at Image Description Page. Image not modified.

Caption: Bernard Gagnon, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Original image and licensing details at Image Description Page. Image not modified.

In 1977, at No. 141 Siwei Road in Da’an District, Taipei, a house that had stood for about two hundred years began to be dismantled. It was not an excavator that arrived first, but windows, furniture, roof tiles, wooden components, bricks, and stone slabs leaving their original positions one by one. That year, the widening project of Dunhua South Road approached the Lin An-Tai Old House. ¹

From the original site to Binjiang Park, the straight-line distance is about ten kilometers. This route took ten years to traverse before the old house could stand up again on new land. ² The Lin An-Tai Old House thus becomes a story that is not suitable for summarizing simply as "successful preservation." It did survive, but it also lost its original geography, neighborhood, and way of life.

Curator’s Note: A house can be moved, but the relationship between the house and the land cannot be packed up in bulk.

A Person First, Then a House

In 1754, Lin Qin-ming, whose ancestral home was in Anxi, Fujian, crossed the sea to Taiwan with his family. His fourth son, Lin Zhi-neng, later did business in Monga (Wanhua), establishing the Rongtai Trading House. After accumulating wealth, the Lin family built a residence on what is now Siwei Road in Da’an District. The main building was completed around 1783–1785, with the side wings (longhu) completed successively in 1822–1823. ³

"An-Tai" is not a tourist name applied later. Official historical records state that it is derived from the "An" of Anxi and the "Tai" of the Rongtai Trading House. A residence name placing the ancestral homeland and business on the same plaque preserves the process of how an immigrant family settled in Taipei. ³

Before becoming a museum, this house was a container for the Lin family’s life, with a main hall, side wings, front courtyard, and pond, as well as the sounds of family members entering and exiting daily, cooking, washing clothes, and playing. A 2014 press release from the Taipei City Government Department of Civil Affairs preserved the memories of Lin Qing-long, a descendant of the Lin family, regarding his childhood life. He remembered being born in the old house and growing up between the lattice doors, the spirit table, and the front courtyard. ⁴

If one only looks at the roof ridge, brick walls, and carvings, the old house becomes a beautiful specimen, and the fact that Lin family members once lived within it recedes into the background. The truly irreplaceable aspect of the Lin An-Tai Old House lies in the fact that it was once simultaneously a home, an ancestral house, the center of rural life, and later a piece of private land cut by road engineering.

The City Needs a Road, the Old House Needs a Place

In 1976, the Taipei City Government faced the choice of demolishing the Lin An-Tai Old House due to the widening of Dunhua South Road. At that time, the old house had not yet been listed in the heritage preservation register, and some structures were located within the planned area of the road project. Official research reports recorded that approximately two-thirds of the rear structures fell within the engineering scope, covering an area of about 170 ping, thus sparking debates between in-situ preservation and relocated reconstruction. ⁵

This debate was not as neatly divided between "preservationists" and "developers." Some proposed routing the road around, underground, or on an elevated viaduct, while others argued for dismantling and rebuilding at a new site. Experts, architects, government agencies, and the Lin family each faced different costs. A road is a public facility for a city, but an ancestral house is a living space for a family that cannot be replaced by the language of public engineering. ⁵

In 1967, the Ministry of the Interior had convened relevant units such as Transportation, Education, Archives, and Urban Planning, along with experts and scholars, to discuss the preservation of the Lin An-Tai Old House. Official research reports recorded that the meeting had reached a conclusion for in-situ preservation, but the Taipei City Government subsequently proceeded in the direction of relocation. ⁵

In 1978, the Lin family agreed to the demolition. This decision cannot be simplified as the Lin family voluntarily donating the old house, nor can it be written solely as a unilateral rescue by the government. Official research records the tug-of-war between property rights, compensation, living conditions, and the road’s planned area. When a house is not listed in the heritage register, there is no fair answer to what power a family can use to demand the city stop. ⁵

The Old House’s First Move Actually Involved Three Moves

According to a press release from the Taipei City Government Department of Civil Affairs, the dismantling project that began in 1977 first placed the old house’s components in a temporary warehouse on Anhe Road, then moved them under the viaduct on Heping West Road, and finally found a reconstruction site in the Binjiang Street area. From dismantling to reconstruction, the moving process took about ten years, not completed in one go. ⁴

A Taipei Times report describes this process as closer to a chaotic logistics project. The dismantling of the old house took five months; components were滞留 (delayed/stuck) in the Anhe Road warehouse due to land disputes, then placed under the Heping West Road viaduct, where wooden components and pillars were damaged in a leaking environment. Six years later, the government found a new site in Binjiang Park. ²

Timeline source: Taipei City Government Department of Civil Affairs history page, official research reports, and Taipei Times.

The difficulty of moving lies not just in distance. The old house was originally a structured system with direction and order. Roof tiles press on the roof frame, wooden pillars and brick walls interlock, doors, windows, and daily use form dimensions. When every part is taken apart, the original relationships are dismantled along with it.

Official research data indicates that after multiple relocations and reassemblies, some old wooden components of the old house were damaged, and original tiles are no longer used. ⁶ This detail is more worth remembering than "complete preservation." Preservation is not about safely delivering every material to the new home, but deciding which traces can be honestly left behind after losses have already occurred.

Caption: Bernard Gagnon, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA Multiple License. Original image and licensing details at Image Description Page. Image not modified.

Caption: Bernard Gagnon, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Original image and licensing details at Image Description Page. Image not modified.

For engineers or restorers, the difficulty of this case can be broken down into several layers. The first layer is identification: every roof tile, every piece of timber, and every brick must have its position recorded before dismantling. The second layer is preservation: components cannot just be piled up centrally; they must face wear caused by humidity, transport, and waiting. The third layer is reassembly: the foundation, direction, drainage, and usage needs of the new site force restorers to make choices between old materials and new engineering.

Therefore, coding is not merely a construction technique, but a way of turning architectural memory into trackable data. It allows later people to know which components were originally where, and allows people to see which parts have been lost. If only photos after reconstruction completion are available, readers might easily assume the house was never interrupted. Leaving behind dismantling records, material lists, and damage conditions is the technical document responsible to historical architecture.

This also explains why relocated preservation cannot be judged solely by the final appearance. Academic research points out that relocated buildings lose their original environment, and engineering techniques may also affect authenticity. ⁷ For public cultural institutions, what is displayed should not only be a complete roof ridge and a neat courtyard, but also original site photos, relocation routes, material wear, and decision-making controversies. Only by making the process public can visitors understand that the architecture before them is not a natural留存 (retention), but the result of accumulated choices and costs from multiple parties. This is the reason this article lists official histories, government research, academic abstracts, and English reports side by side: different sources illuminate different parts of the process, and none can alone replace the entire history.

Curator’s Note: "Moving house" sounds like a daily verb, but for historical architecture, every move redefines what it is.

Reconstruction Is Not Putting the Original Back in Place

In 1984, Binjiang Park was selected as the reconstruction site. Official press releases record that Architect Li Chong-yao used coding techniques to handle the dismantled components, completing the reconstruction under conditions of aged materials, dismantling damage, and limited preservation conditions. The old house was completed in 1985 and opened to the public in 1987. ^{4 2}

A Taipei Times report additionally notes that reconstruction regulations prohibited the use of metal, plastic, and nails; the project was completed after 400 days at a cost of NT$45.3 million. These numbers are not used to prove how spectacular the engineering was, but to let readers see that "off-site preservation" is actually an extremely specific technical workflow. ²

The more precise the engineering technology, the clearer the preservation problems become. A 2006 study from Chung Yuan Christian University pointed out that in-situ preservation is generally considered the best way to preserve historical architecture, while relocated preservation is a不得已 (last resort) under the conflict between urban development and cultural preservation. The study organized 28 relocation preservation cases from the Japanese colonial period to the present in Taiwan, reminding that relocated buildings may lose their original environment and face questions about material authenticity and engineering techniques. ⁷

Therefore, the Lin An-Tai Old House in Binjiang Park is not simply a "copy of the original site" nor a "fake heritage site that only retains its appearance." It is a historical building that was once dismantled, damaged, re-interpreted, and finally composed of some old materials and new engineering decisions. Its authenticity lies not only in whether the bricks are old, but in whether people are willing to speak out about the fractures caused by relocation.

The Original Fengshui Cannot Be Moved

The Lin An-Tai Old House was originally oriented facing southwest from the northeast, with a mountain range known as the "Table Mountain" (An Shan) in front, protective sand (Hu Sha) on the left and right, and a Ming Tang (bright hall) in front of the half-moon pond. These geographical relationships are not decorative backgrounds, but a system of methods by which traditional dwellings understand direction, wind, water, and family order. ³

After moving to Binjiang Park, the original geographical environment no longer exists. The official history does not pretend this gap can be completely eliminated, but records that the current site uses an artificial mountain body "Gu Zhu Ming Shan" (顧渚茗山), grass slopes, and gardens to re-symbolize the original Table Mountain and Ming Tang. ³ The English official history page also clearly states that after the old house moved away from Siwei Road, the original fengshui landscape changed, and the current site’s garden is a reproduction of that landscape relationship. ⁸

Here lies a subtle but critical difference. Reproduction is not restoration. An artificial mountain body can allow people to understand the original fengshui vocabulary, but it cannot call back Chanfu Mountain, fields, neighboring houses, and the way of life since the Qing Dynasty. The garden is thus both a preservation project and a public acknowledgment: some things can only be explained, not moved.

The official architectural tour divides the park into blue and red groups of attractions, including Yue Mei Pond, Outer Courtyard, Antai Hall, Main Hall, Dou Gong (bracket sets), Cloud Wall, Langgu Stone Courtyard, Aibo Pavilion, Flying Stone Path, and Gu Zhu Ming Shan. ⁹ These names give today’s visitors a path to walk, and transform the old house from a family space into a public educational space.

Three Scales: Materials, Landscape, and Public Memory

The preservation data of the Lin An-Tai Old House can be read through three scales. The smallest scale is materials, including wooden components, bricks, tiles, stone slabs, and doors/windows. This scale concerns whether components are still present, whether their original positions can be identified, and how to supplement after wear. The middle scale is architecture, including the main building, side wings, front courtyard, Yue Mei Pond, and perimeter wall. This scale concerns whether spatial order can still be understood. The largest scale is the city, including Siwei Road, road widening, warehouses, under the viaduct, and Binjiang Park. This scale concerns how a house was changed by public engineering, and who has the right to decide which places are worth keeping. ^{5 6}

These three scales also illustrate that a single photo cannot bear the entire preservation work. Photos can record appearance, surveying can record dimensions, coding can track components, oral history can supplement life experiences, and official reports leave the decision-making context of policy and engineering. Different data cannot replace each other, but can correct each other. This data stratification remains important for today’s cultural heritage digitalization, because a 3D model on the internet without the context of the original site, materials, and users may still be just a beautiful model that has lost historical relationships.

Curator’s Note: Preservation is not about concentrating data into one display case, but about making different kinds of evidence align with each other.

From Ancestral House to Public Daily Life

In 2000, the Lin An-Tai Folklore Museum officially opened to the public. In 2010, after garden expansion, it became one of the exhibition halls of the Taipei International Flora Expo. ⁸ This house thus changed its form of life again: no longer serving only one family, but allowing strangers to come in to understand Qing Dynasty Minnan residences, family life, and the changes in Taipei’s city.

The more the old house resembles an easily accessible attraction, the more the act of opening brings another contrast: it becomes easier to forget it was not originally here. Tourists take photos by the half-moon pond, seeing the garden of Binjiang Park and the reassembled courtyard. Without history, research, and relocation records, the Siwei Road of the original site would only recede into the background.

A better way to visit is to treat the route as a scaled-down preservation map. First look at the perimeter wall and entrance, noting how the old house divides inside and outside through doors, walls, and the front courtyard. Then walk to Yue Mei Pond and the main hall, observing the visual relationships between the water surface, the courtyard, and the main building. Finally look at the roof ridge, Dou Gong, the concave-shou San Chuan Gate, and color painting details, placing them back into the context of architectural craftsmanship and family life, rather than treating them merely as decoration. The official tour lists these nodes separately, providing a method to read the space independently without relying on a guide. ⁹

If the original site is also put into imagination, the visit gains an invisible coordinate. Siwei Road is not an exhibit in the park, but the starting point for understanding why this house had to be moved. Binjiang Park is not a substitute photo for the original site, but a new public scene after reconstruction. The two locations must coexist for the history of the Lin An-Tai Old House not to be compressed into a beautiful old residence. This reading also reminds us that visitors are not just observing a finished product, but recognizing a city relationship that was cut, preserved, and then re-explained. The perimeter wall at the entrance, the water surface in the courtyard, the scale of the main hall, and the decoration on the roof ridge each preserve different layers of information. Connecting them back to the original site and the relocation process allows us to understand that the cultural value of the old house does not only hide in the most exquisite carvings.

The National Cultural Heritage Network’s registration data lists the Lin An-Tai Old House as a historical building, recording its original site, historical background, and open status. ¹⁰ This act of registration itself illustrates that cultural heritage does not gain public meaning solely by "looking old," but through investigation, registration, research, and management, turning a house’s value into memory that society can jointly use.

Curator’s Note: What is most worth seeing in the Lin An-Tai Old House today is not just the roof tiles and carvings, but the fact that it leaves the cost of the verb "preserve" on site.

The Institutional Memory Left by This Case

The influence of the Lin An-Tai Old House is not limited to within the walls of Binjiang Park. The Taipei City Government’s official research places it in the context of Taiwan’s historical building relocation preservation, organizing the debate over the original site, expert meetings, component dismantling, and reconstruction engineering into a case that can later be studied, compared, and reviewed. ⁵ This makes "whether heritage sites can be moved" no longer just a temporary dispute over one house, but a problem that public policy must address.

A 2006 thesis used the Lin An-Tai Old House incident as a dividing point, organizing relocation preservation cases across Taiwan thereafter. The study did not view subsequent relocations uniformly as progress, but instead questioned relocation reasons, methods, legal basis, and outcomes one by one. ⁷ This writing style is noteworthy because it breaks "successful preservation" into several checkable questions: how much of the original spatial relationship remains, whether materials are still identifiable, whether the new location can explain old lives, and whether public use allows the architecture to continue generating meaning.

For today’s urban engineering, this case provides a reverse reminder. If cultural heritage is only seen after road alignments, land rights, and construction schedules are already fixed, preservation usually leaves only the binary choice of dismantling or disappearing. A better approach is to put historical buildings, surrounding landscapes, and community memory into early planning, first comparing the costs of in-situ preservation, road rerouting, undergrounding, partial retention, and relocated preservation, and then deciding which loss is borne by whom. This is not about turning every old house into an untouchable no-go zone, but about not letting "moving" be mistaken for a neutral solution without cost.

The Lin An-Tai Old House preserves partial evidence of the Qing Dynasty Anxi immigrant family establishing a residence in Taipei, as well as the spatial form, architectural craftsmanship, and life imagination of the Minnan four-sided courtyard. It also preserves the record of how the government, experts, and the family tugged back and forth when Taipei faced the conflict between urban roads and historical architecture in the 1970s. ^{3 5}

The original land was not preserved. The street grid of Siwei Road, the original fields, the neighborhood, and the family’s daily life did not arrive at the new site along with the building. Academic research treats the Lin An-Tai Old House as a representative of relocated preservation not because this method has no flaws, but because this case turned its flaws themselves into a problem that later cultural heritage discussions cannot ignore. ⁷

When walking into Binjiang Park, one can treat it as an old residence, or as a file that has been moved. The former view allows people to appreciate the architecture; the latter view makes people notice the relationship between architecture and land. Both views are necessary; missing either, the Lin An-Tai Old House would be spoken of too easily.

What is preserved is not necessarily the original place, but people’s willingness to acknowledge loss after losing the original site. The Lin An-Tai Old House is thus not just a house that was left behind, but a question Taipei was forced to answer for the first time between road widening, urban renewal, and cultural memory. This question has not been moved elsewhere; it remains in place, waiting for people to ask it again. Precisely because of this, the Lin An-Tai Old House is worth being treated as an entry point to Taiwan’s modern urban history, rather than just a heritage site name on a tourist list.

Further Reading

• Lin An-Tai Folklore Museum Official Website
• National Cultural Heritage Network: Lin An-Tai Old House
• Wikimedia Commons: Images and Licensing Information

References