St. Joseph's Home for the Aged

St. Joseph's Home for the Aged
The front of the gate house of St. Joseph's Home for the Aged
General information
Type	Grade II historic building
Architectural style	Neo-classical
Address	No. 18 Po Kin Road, Sheung Shui, New Territories, Hong Kong
Completed	1930s
Design and construction
Architecture firm	Crédit foncier d'Extrême-Orient

St. Joseph's Home for the Aged (Chinese: 聖若瑟安老院) is located at No. 35 Clear Water Bay Road, Ngau Chi Wan, Wong Tai Sin, New Kowloon, Hong Kong. The site spans 230,000 square feet (21,000 m²).

St. Joseph's Home for the Aged refers to a compound of historical buildings; more than 10 buildings at its peak. The site was not originally a home for the elderly, but a villa (or storey-house) belonging to Mr. Chan Keng-Yu (陳賡如). This added historical significance to the compound as Mr. Chan Keng-Yu was the Compradore of Douglas Lapraik and Co., as well as one of the Founding Directors of Chinese Chamber of Commerce (華商總會).

In 1926, the site was sold to the Little Sisters of the Poor, a French-based charitable body and Roman Catholic order for women. Architect firm, Crédit foncier d'Extrême-Orient, was in charge of the development of St. Joseph's Home for the Aged in the 1930s.

During the 1930s, St. Joseph's Home for the Aged served as a refuge for those who fled from the Japanese invasion in China.

Despite the proposal of a grade 2 classification, the entire site, villa, gate house, and dormitory A all kept their classification as grade 1 historical buildings on September 18, 2009.

The villa was the first building of the compound and dates back to 1919. It is a single-storey bungalow of neo-classical colonial style. It has a colonnaded verandah: 8 Doric-styled columns supporting the entablature on segmental arches. The roof of the villa was found to be flat, but there are indications that it may have been originally, a Chinese tiled pitched roof. Double entry steps introduce the front of the verandah.