A peek into home of American journalist who covered March 1
Dilkusha, the former house of Albert Taylor, an AP correspondent who reported on the March 1 Independence Movement. The house is under restoration work for an official public opening scheduled for 2020. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar
By Lee Suh-yoon
The house of the American journalist Albert Taylor will be open briefly to public view next Friday in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement, Seoul Metropolitan Government said, Tuesday.
It has been under restoration work for an official public opening planned for 2020.
Albert Taylor / Courtesy of Seoul Museum of History via Jennifer Linley Taylor
Albert Taylor, a part-time journalist and correspondent for The Associated Press, arrived in Korea in 1896 to join the gold-mining business. When the March 1 Movement broke out in 1919, he reported on the event to the world from the ground. He reported on the Proclamation of Independence ― copies of which he claims to have accidentally come across while visiting his wife at Severance Hospital ― as well as King Gojong's state funeral and the bloody Jeam-ri massacre.
The house is located in Haengchon-dong, the western part of Seoul's Jongno area. Taylor and his wife named the house Dilkusha, meaning “heart's delight” in Hindi. The two met in Japan and married in India. They were expelled from Korea in 1942 due to worsening U.S-Japan ties. The house was divided into multiple living units and lived in until historians rediscovered the site about a decade ago.
Though visitors are not allowed inside the house due to safety reasons, the grounds will be open to the public from 2 p.m. to 4:20 p.m. on March 1, after which it will be closed off again to resume renovation work.
The city plans to restore the two-story red brick house as close to its original image as possible and reopen it as a commemorative museum in 2020. The museum will also display items, photos and letters belonging to Taylor and his wife Mary. These family heirlooms are currently on display at the Dilkusha exhibition being held at Seoul History Museum until March 10.
Taylor, who died at the age of 73 in 1948, now rests at Yanghwajin Foreigners' Cemetery, a few kilometers southwest of Dilkusha.