Lin's House

The former site of Lin's House was the Douglas Memorial Hall built in 1880 by the English Presbyterian Mission. The Lin's House was part of the purchase made by Mr. Lin Zhenxun together with the land block in December 1924. The house was designed by Lin Zhenxun's second son Lin Quancheng, who graduated from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was constructed by a Shanghai construction company and completed in 1927 as a residence for the family. The house contains four stories with the damp-proof layer being the basement. Covering a floor area of 1,140 square meters and a land area of 1,462 square meters, it is 20 meters in breadth and 70 meters in depth. The essence of Lin's House lies in the designing method of integrating roof and walls. The hip roof is a typical French-style Mansard roof (gambrel roof). The gambrel roof adopts the pitched roof of Northern Europe covered with Kah Kee tiles. Semicircular protruding arched windows are opened from the pitched roof in accordance with the wind direction. The exterior of the house shows variety and harmony with pointed plane windows, air vent windows, sightseeing corridors, fireplaces and chimneys. The gambrel roof is stylish, showing the beauty of architecture of Northern Europe. The French-style Mansard roof and European-style hip roof integrate perfectly with each other, which greatly enriches the elevation of the architecture and the profile against the skyline. The square brick columns in the facade reach the roof. To accentuate the entrance of each floor, a long corridor is set in the facade of both the second and third floors. It is one of the most distinctive villa buildings on Kulangsu.