Establishment of Public Administration Hall
In the 13 th Year of Guangxu Emperor (1887), after the Public Administrator was named, Taiwan Administration Office was firstly used as the site of temporary office. The building of the Hall was finally completed in the 15 th Year of Guangxu Emperor (1889). According to “Removal of the Agency and the Remaining Management by Sheng Yinkuai,” the total building cost was thirty one thousand ninety nine dollars and nine cents, only less than that of residency of Governor-General. Due to the insufficient building cost of new capital city in Qiao Zi Tu (now Taichung ), it was moved back to Taipei and Taiwan Administration Agency used Public Administration Hall as their formal office.
Expanded Building of Public Administration Hall
In the 18 th Year of Guangxu Emperor (1892), in order to greet the visits of high-ranking officials, expanded building was conducted on the west side of Public Administration Hall with the use of better building material for smaller scale housing where connects the Hall with corridor, and it was named “Inspection General Guest House.”
Functional Change of Public Administration Hall
In the 21 st Year of Guangxu Emperor (1895), in order to resist to the takeover of Taiwan by Japanese military, on May 25, Taiwan Republic was founded and the Public Administration Hall was used as Presidential Office. Taiwan Public Administration Hall was “Administration Hall of Internal Affairs Announced by Taiwan Republic ” and Security and Garrison Bureau was established at Inspection General Office. But along with the leaving of Tang Jingsung on June 3, Japanese military arrived in Taipei on June 17. The first Governor-Geneal Kabayama Sukenori conducted the inauguration ceremony at Security and Garrison Bureau at that time and Public Administration Hall became the station site of Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa, the army headquarters during that time. It was until the fifth Governor-General Sakuma Samata who began building permanent office buildings. In March 1919, new office buildings were completed and scheduled to use after April 1 when Governor-General Office was relocated here. Since then, during the first 25 years of Japanese ruling, here was used as the Office of Governor-General.
After the relocation of Office of Governor-General, the Hall belonged to buildings of Commerce High School , the front part, and Vocational Forestry School , the rear part. The former used Center to Head Gate at the west side while the latter used the rear hall and buildings as school buildings. In addition, buildings from the east head gate to Yigate were rebuilt. At the southwest of old official buildings, warehouse of Taxation Department was transferred to the use of Commerce High School .
The Warehouse at northwest corner of Colonial Assets Bureau was also rebuilt in the end of June of the same year and was planned to transfer to public pawn shops. Between November 12 to December 25, some old official buildings were used as the training venue of Bureau of Forestry; trainees came either by recommendation or at their own costs, in total of 120 trainees. They received trainings except for national holidays and Sundays. The adjacent space is used as public pawn shops. It became a popular trading site after the operation on June 16, 1920 and later the buildings and space at the east were rebuilt as South Branch of Police Agency.
On August 3, the Public Administration Hall used by the Military became the new home of Army Headquarters. In 1922, Commerce High School and Vocational Forestry School were relocated and the Governor-General Office gave the property right to Temporary National Affairs Investigation Bureau. In September 1923, Taipei School for the Blind and Mute moved here temporarily due to the damages of school buildings by typhoon and used central hall and hall at the east side as school buildings while Temporary National Affairs made use the rest of space. On December 10, 1928, Taipei School for the Blind and Mute moved out and Governor-General Office gave the property right to Taihoku Prefecture .
Preservation Issue of the Public Administration Hall
In June, 1929, Taipei City thought to dismantle the Hall for urban renewal. Governor-General Ishizuka during that time would like to preserve the Hall. In lieu of the implementation of Preservation Law of Historic Site, Scenic and National Monument a year later, the site including Inspection General Guest House and Public Administration Hall was preserved. Meanwhile, the repairing and restoration of damages done by termites were conducted. Hence, this building, actually, was composed of two parts. In December 1929, except for two parts mentioned above, the rest old official buildings of Governor-General were removed.
From January 28 to the end of March, 1930, Governor-General Office was repaired again in 1930, In July, Kuriyama Syunichi published “Preservation of Old Official Buildings of Governor- General Office” in Journal of Taiwan Architecture Association, In the same year, Ide Kaoru also published papers to support the preservation of old official buildings of Governor-General Office on Taiwan Daily and Taiwan New Newspaper. Therefore, Governor- General Office was regarded as an important exhibition venue.
Between 1925-1926, Ota, the Governor of Taipei, would like to use the site as Taipei Citizen Hall but the plan was postponed due to lack of funding. In 1928, in celebration of the inauguration of the Emperor, as one of the venues, Taipei Citizen Hall received the fund of 800,000. By January, 1930, s Taipei Citizen Hall was planned to be built on the opposite Wnewu Street . The selected site turned out to be designated area of park but due to the lack of funding and the difficulty to relocate the old official buildings, the issue remained unsettled until July, 1931.
Yosaburo Takekoshi, the President of Nanmen Association, led representatives of 14 districts in Taipei (group leaders) to make declaration on the 15 th with two appeals: dismantling of Taipei City Gate and relocation of Taipei Citizen Hall at the old Governor-General Office due to the inconvenient traffic and high repairing and maintenance of the old official buildings. They regarded the old official buildings as no preservation value. In addition, Taipei City Gate and old Governor-General Office blocked the traffic. In fact, in 1929, the representatives of 14 districts made the same proposals but the officials during that time turned them down.
The declaration was supported by Councilmen of Taipei City and conveyed by City Mayor to the higher ranking officials. During the dispute, the public set up the Association of Preservation of Historical Sites to resist to the City Council and group leaders and three proposals from different perspective were proposed:
• Dismantling old official buildings and building a public hall;
• On-site preservation; and
• Partial preservation and relocation.
Led by conservationist, Ide Kaoru, the dispute continued with the 14 district representatives and finally, in December, a consensus was reached on partial preservation of old official buildings and the public hall was designed by Ide Kaoru. By June, 1932, the discussion on relocation site and preservation began. The Government's Building Department wanted to rebuild most of the buildings (about 320 pings) in front of the statute of General Kodama at 228 Peach Memorial Park and used it as the exhibition venue. The required expenditure was 8,000 dollars and the rest (building at the left of the Central Hall, less than 100 pings) were at the cost of 3,000 but Taipei City rejected the relocation site and regarded it difficult to relocate at the small space in front of the statute of General Kodama.
In the end, on June 30, 1932, the Final Evaluation Committee at General-Director residency approved the proposal for the relocation at botanic garden raised by Ide Kaoru. Governor of General Affairs, Hiratsuka Hirohito also agreed the proposal. On August 17, the relocation to the botanical garden and zoo was officially confirmed. After relocation ceremony held on September 27, on October 4, ceremonies were held at old Governor-General Office, the botanic garden and zoo, entering the new era of historical site.Chronicle of Public Administration Hall
1887 ˙Taiwan Public Administration Office was established as the highest administrative agency in Taiwan during Qing Dynasty.
Summer, 1889 ˙ The Public Administration Hall was built at the northern side of Ximen Street of Baocheng Gate of Capital Taipei.
1895 ˙Sino-Japanese War broke out and Inspection General Tang Jingsung established Security and Garrison Bureau at the west side of the residency.
˙6/7 Japanese military took over Capital Taipei with force.
˙6/11 Due to the damage of Inspection General Building done by fire, Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa used the Hall as royal military camp and established the command center here.
˙6/14 ， Governor-General Kanayama Sukenori used Inspectional General Guest House as Taiwan Govenor-General Office.
˙6/17 ， Inauguration ceremony was held.
˙ After the southern exploration of Prince Kitashira Yoshihisa on July 28, on August 21, the Public Administration Hall was transferred to the use of Military of Governor-General.
1915
˙4/8 The building of Memorial Museum of Colonial Assets Bureau was completed. Zoo the Museum was transferred to Yunshan Zoo.
˙6/25 Construction commencement Ceremony of Governor-General Office was held.
˙8/20 Memorial Museum of Colonial Assets Bureau (now National Taiwan Museum ) was open.
1917
˙11/1 Prince Kitashirakawa Narihisa and Princess visited Army Division.
1918
˙ Part of army buildings were decayed.
1919
˙From January 7 -17 Okada Saburosuke came to Taiwan for calligraphy writing for Governor-General Office and went to Audi, Tanshui Port , and Kaohsiung for portrait painting.
˙March After the completion of new Governor-General Office, Governor-General Office was relocated.
˙5/2 Commerce High School was established in old Governor-General Office.
˙6/16 Opening Ceremony of Professional Agricultural and Forestry Professional School was held.
˙10/24 Governor-General Akashi Motojiro passed away.
˙10/29 Den Kenjiro was appointed as Taiwan Governor-General.
˙11/11 Den Kenjiro served his term as Taiwan Governor-General.
˙11/12-12/25 Forestry Specialist raining of Forestry Bureau was held at old Governor-General Office.
1920
˙6/16 Public Pawn Shop was open.
˙8/3 Taiwan Military Headquarters Office at Xiaonanmen was completed and relocated from old Governor-General Office.
1921
˙March Taipei City Council proposed to build public hall.
1922
˙ Taipei Commerce High School was relocated at Xingding (now #21 Xuzhao Rd. , Taipei City) and later it was the
site of Law School of National Taiwan University and in 1987, it was used by Business College of National Taiwan University.
Agricultural and Forestry Professional School was renamed as Senior Agricultural and Forestry School and relocated to Guangguan.
1923
˙September Taipei School for the Blind and Mute moved to Old Governor-General Office.
1924
˙4/8 Entrusted by Governor-General Office, Yamamoto Kanae came to Taiwan to observe local handcraft for the proposal of Taiwan industrial art.
˙4/29-4/30 Nagano Farming Art Exhibition was held at old Governor-General Office.
1925
˙6/17 The Exhibition in memory of the thirty-year Japanese ruling was held and old Governor-General Office was used as Venue 3, Transportation Hall, displaying objects related to mail communication and railway business.
1928
˙10/3 Taihokushi Police Exhibition was held at old Governor-General Office.
˙12/10 Taipei School for the Blind and Mute moved out from old Governor-General Office.
1929
˙4/27 South Police Agency was completed.
˙10/14 Governor-General Ishizuka visited the old Governor-General Office.
˙ December Public Administration Hall was dismantled.
˙12/17 Taipei City 's 14 Group Leaders decided to build public hall at old Governor-General Office.
1930
˙ 1/28~ the end of March Restoration was conducted. 。
1931
˙ 7/15 Yosaburo Takekoshi, the President of Nanman Association, led 14 district representatives (group leaders) in Taipei to make declaration including the proposal to build public hall at old Governor-General Office.
˙August Historical Site Preservation Association was established by the public to resist the proposal of City Council and group leaders to dismantle the old Governor-General Office.
˙December Led by conservationist, Ide Kaoru, the dispute continued with the 14 district representatives and finally, in December, a consensus was reached on partial preservation of old official buildings and the public hall was designed by Ide Kaoru.
1932
˙8/17 Official comment was given to relocate the old Governor-General Office to the botanical garden and zoo.
˙9/27 Worshiping ceremony was held.
˙10/4 After worshiping ceremony was conducted at the old Governor-General Office, botanical garden, and zoo, relocation project officially began.
Reference:
Li, R. Z. (2007) . New Perspective of Taipei Botanical Garden and Inspection General Guest House. Taipei City : Forestry Research Institute, Council of Agricultural Affairs, Executive Yuan.
Note: Some information is collected through oral narration of tour guide.