Yesterday I met a wonderful person, the great grandson of my grandfather’s employer. I came to my ancestral homeland to revisit the house on the land where mother was born. What did I find? Boys and girls, do I have a story to tell!
To be continued …
Copyright 2011 Rebekah Luke
Rebekah’s Studio 
I agree. The stone work was a terrace for a garden, or a retaining wall of some sort. I have more photos from my 1990 shoot that I didn’t post. There are other clues in the photos, e.g., the power poles and a stand of areca palms. Ann’s photo that I emailed the family DOES show the Chong house. I had forgotten that the kitchen wing was removed. Pete says the two areas of tall overgrown grass is probably where the structures were, because when soil hasn’t seen sunlight for a long time and suddenly is exposed, plants grow really fast. Or, house foundations are hard to use a lawn mower on.
Rebekah,
Now that I see the old photos, what we looked at and thought to be the stone foundations of the Chong house and bachelor’s cottage would NOT have stood there. The houses were wooden post-and-beam foundations on unraised grade. Those low stone walls were something else.
Cousin Nate
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