"I got to know the Red Building via the descriptions of my family members and photos. But I find it is more magnificent than I expected when I come here." On July 4, Kevin Kelley Wilson, one of the grandsons of the supervising architect of the old Red Building Stanley Wilson, and his family came to Xiangya Hospital, visited the old Red Building under renovation and donated valuable historical materials to the History Museum of Xiangya. They were warmly welcomed by Prof. Sun Hong, President of Xiangya Hospital, Prof. Li Xuejun, Deputy Director of the President’s Office and Director of the International Affairs Office and other staff.
Kevin Kelley Wilson Donating Valuable Historical Materials to Xiangya Hospital
President Sun Hong Presenting the BookDoctors East, Doctors Westto the Wilsons
In 1913, employed by Yale-China Association, Stanley Wilson together with his family traveled all the way from New York to Changsha, Hunan Province for the construction of the Red Building of Xiangya Hospital. He stayed in Changsha for 5 years and didn’t leave until the building was put into use.
The historical materials Kevin Kelley Wilson donated to the History Museum of Xiangya included several old photos of the Red Building, documents about the construction of the Red Building, the set square and measuring rule used during the construction of the Red Building, letters exchanged between Mr. and Mrs. Wilson and Yale-China Association in those days and copies of the journals written in China. All these historical materials recorded the construction process of the Red Building and the local conditions and customs surrounding Xiangya over 100 years ago.
President Sun Hong expressed gratitude to the Wilsons and presented them the bookDoctors East, Doctors West, a memoir written by Dr. Edward Hicks Hume, one of the founders of Xiangya School of Medicine and Xiangya Hospital.
On the renovation site, Cao Xing, Director of the Infrastructure Office, told the Wilsons, "The current external walls of the Red Building are restored with the original bricks and joints used in 1915 by using a special technique. Even the glazed tiles at the roof are the polished original tiles." Kevin marveled at them and looked forward to the view after the completion of its renovation.
Designed by American architect Murphy and established in 1915, the Red Building of Xiangya Hospital boasted over 300 rooms and could accommodate 120 beds. It well combined western advanced technology with Chinese traditional decoration methods and represented the integration of Chinese architecture into the world. Ling Minyou, former Dean of Xiangya School of Medicine, described the Red Building inFrom Xiangya to Hunan Medical Collegelike this: The golden glazed tiles and the walls in red and white are sheltered by a wild profusion of vegetation south of the Yangtze River. The photos and written records left by Mr. and Mrs. Wilson witnessed the construction history of the Red Building and the first step that Xiangya had taken during the past 100 years.
