Historic Jeong-dong houses to be demolished for palace expansion plan

Two 1938-built houses in Jeong-dong, central Seoul, are set for demolition this month in a city government plan to restore Deoksu Palace. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

By Jon Dunbar

As the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) moves ahead with a controversial long-term plan to expand Deoksu Palace to its full dimensions, some historians decry the disappearance of modern heritage sites and question the need for the renovation project.

"The area is full of actual, historical buildings that still stand," history researcher Matt VanVolkenburg said. "But the pathways that are currently being built around Deoksu Palace are a mix of recreated and invented history."

Last month, a compound of six imperial-era houses was opened to the public. The first of the houses was constructed in 1938 behind the U.S. Legation in historic Jeong-dong, which had been the 1392-1910 Joseon Kingdom's foreign quarter since the 1800s, housing the U.S., Russian and British legations.

According to historian Suk Ji-hoon, a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan, the property had been split off from palace grounds in 1920, the year after King Gojong's death. It was used by Haein Temple, then Boseong College, the predecessor of Korea University, and later Chosen Savings Bank. The houses were constructed in 1938 for the bank's president.

After liberation, the Japanese resident was evicted and a U.S. soldier moved in, according to VanVolkenburg. Later the houses became housing for the U.S. vice ambassador, remaining in U.S. hands until the early 2000s.

The "King's Way" path leads from Deoksu Palace to the former site of the Russian Legation in Jeong-dong, central Seoul. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

In June 2003, the U.S. proposed moving its embassy to this spot. But when the palatial background of the site was revealed, the subsequent controversy over U.S. use of it led to the collapse of the plan. The houses have been abandoned ever since.

"Parts of the houses had deteriorated due to a decade or more of disuse, and most of the houses were in reasonably good repair," said VanVolkenburg, who visited the houses last month. "It does not seem like it would be that difficult to restore these buildings."

But the houses are scheduled for demolition this month to make way for the palace restoration, beginning with a passage the Americans in the late 1890s called "the King's Road." King Gojong used this walkway to visit the Seonwonjeon compound, which housed the portraits of past kings. According to Suk, the path extended to the Russian Legation, but its actual purpose was to connect to an overpass leading to nearby Gyeonghui Palace.

"There was not much of a secret involved in this, contrary to what people believe," Suk said.

Suk also calls out the enduring myth of an underground passage connecting Deoksu Palace with the Russian Legation.

Within the Chosen Savings compound, several underground entrances are visible, leading visitors to speculate this was part of Gojong's underground route. But they all lead to shallow chambers, likely constructed by the Japanese as air-raid shelters in anticipation of U.S. bombing in World War II.

A tunnel did exist, discovered in the 1970s, but Suk says it was most likely built for Russian guards and did not connect to the palace.

"The myth is quite persisting because many people assume that back in 1896 Gojong sought his refuge to the Russian Legation from Deoksu Palace. In actuality, he came to the Russian Legation from Gyeongbok Palace," Suk said.

Although the city government's walkway plans paint the foreign legations as intruders encroaching on palace grounds, both historians caution against such interpretation.

"The entire reason Deoksu Palace was chosen as the site of a new palace was because it stood next to these legations that King Gojong hoped would protect him," VanVolkenburg pointed out.

The palace expansion plan calls for the eventual restoration of the whole Seonwonjeon compound, which is to be done in three stages and completed in 2038, according to the CHA.

"Other than a few pictures we have, we don't really know much about how it looked back in the day," Suk said. "We don't even know how these monarchs actually looked."

Most of the Joseon royal portraits were destroyed in a 1954 warehouse fire in Busan.

"The other problem with recreating Seonwonjeon is that there is already one _ well, two, actually," VanVolkenburg said.

According to him, Deoksu Seonwonjeon stood for only 20 years from 1900 to 1920. Its materials were recycled to construct another Seonwonjeon in Changdeok Palace, Suk adds, in addition to the older Changdeok Seonwonjeon built in the 1690s. Both are still standing at Changdeok Palace.

"I am frankly quite skeptical about the restoration of Seonwonjeon," Suk said. "Even if they restore this section, the only thing they can build up in this place is nothing more than a facade, without any purpose or function whatsoever."

VanVolkenburg added, "Over the last decade it has become clear that city planners and preservationists are erasing all vestiges of the 20th century _ particularly anything connected to Imperial Japan _ in order to either recreate or reinvent Joseon-era buildings or race into the 21st century. But how is anyone to learn from the 20th century if nothing built during that difficult period is left standing?"

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