The San Pa Khoi area, as known to Chiang Mai people, stretches from Charoen Mueang Road (Old San Kamphaeng Road) – Charoen Rat Road intersection to Narawat Bridge in the north, including the Wat Ket area and Kaew Nawarat Road, to the Gymkhana and Ban Den Power Plant in the south, including residential community areas surrounding Kawila Camp.
The first group of buildings to be raised in the San Pa Khoi area, marking the start of change, were American missionary group buildings. American Presbyterians first arrived in 1867, and the first permanent missionary residence and church, made of teak wood, was constructed between 1887-1891. This Christian church is the only such remaining today, and has since become part of the Chiang Mai Christian School. Considered the first Western-style building in Chiang Mai, the building was lauded as Architecture Worthy of Preservation in 2015 by the Association of Siamese Architects.This church is considered to be an example of American country-style architecture. During this period, companies began to receive teak logging concessions from western colonial states. As a result, the main material for construction during this time was processed teak., made easily available through lumber companies and sawmills located along the Ping River.
The church was designed by Dr. Marion Alfonso Cheek, originally a second-generation missionary and later agent of the British Borneo Company. He also established a sawmill, facilitating the construction of missionary residential buildings along with hospitals and a girls' schools. The former San Pa Khoi Satri School was renamed by Chao Dararasami to Phrarajchaya School. These wooden buildings began to disappear as the area changed. The American Mission Hospital and Royal Consort School were relocated to Kaew Nawarat Road, and both renamed to McCormick Hospital and Dara Wittayalai School, respectively. The structure of these wooden buildings differs from traditional Chiang Mai-style homes in that the cross-sectional size of the hardwood follows the light framing system and uses metal nails instead of wooden bolts (light framing/balloon framing) as widely used in Europe and America. Accordingly, the first church is related to the early wooden buildings of the San Pa Khoi area, including missionary houses and the Royal Consort School, marking a new chapter in the history of Chiang Mai.The first wave of missionary resident and school buildings were used for teaching prior to construction of the dedicated school building. Also a teak building, the large two-story wooden house, 9-10 pole lengths and 7-8 pole widths, featured a long hip roof covering a balcony, with tall and open windows. The balcony was sometimes used as a temporary teaching space. This group of wooden buildings was previously located in the same area as the First Church of Christendom is at present. This type of building combines western-style wooden structure systems with local house styles which provide easy ventilation.
The San Pa Khoi area was formerly occupied rice fields before becoming settled with many teak houses, particularly behind the Wat Ket area. This area was previously owned by the British Borneo Company, and later became the come of Dara Wittayalai School and McCormick Hospital. Offices of the British Borneo Company, known as “Ban Borneo”, still remain in some parts of the area. Constructed from teak, these buildings are considered of historical importance to Chiang Mai, being hubs for prominent foreign individuals in Siam at that time. This group of wooden buildings, within an area of 5 rai, was later restored and converted into a hotel, 137 Pillars, which retains the most important characteristics of western-style teak houses combined with the local building style of the area.[1] กลุ่มอาคารไม้ในพื้นที่ ๕ ไร่นี้ ต่อมาได้รับการบูรณะกลายเป็นโรงแรม บ้านร้อยเสา 137 Pillars และยังคงลักษณะสำคัญของเรือนไม้สักตะวันตกที่ผสมความเป็นอาคารพื้นถิ่นของย่านนี้ไว้ได้
In addition, rows of wooden houses used for trade, called “ruean phae” or huean phae” by Chiang Mai locals, collectively forming rafts on the roadside, also existed in the San Pa Khoi area. Now, however, only one building remains in preserved condition, on Charoen Mueang Road. House number 158-162 used to be occupied by Liao Sun Lee bicycle shop and owned by the Rueangwisut family, who originally leased copious areas of farmland in Mae Jo and Mae Taeng districts. This wooden row house has two stories and three booths. A beautiful carved wooden vent sits above the second-story door, while the door on the ground floor is a tall teak folding door. This building was honored as Architecture Worthy of Preservation in 2009. Wooden row houses were an important part of urban development springing from the new economic system around 120 years ago during the prosperous colonial period driven by the logging industry. Most feature hip roofs and a gable in the top corner for ventilation. Similar wooden row houses can be found in the old city centers of other areas, such as Damnoenkasem Road, Mueang Phetchaburi District, Talat Phlu Road, Thonburi District, and Su Suek Road, Mueang Prachuap Khiri Khan District, among others.
Due to the annexation of Chiang Mai and Lanna as part of the state by Siam in 1899, later architecture was influenced by the need for more government buildings to accommodate civil servants of the centralized system. Buildings constructed during this era are distinctive for their neoclassical style combining architecture based on Greco-Roman styles, which can be divided into two main groups. The first is architecture that arose following work of American missionaries and Chinese merchant groups, including Western teak companies. These concrete buildings of brick and mortar have a ceiling height based on proportions of classical architecture, and mostly feature hip roofs. Some of the larger buildings have gabled porticoes, but there is little use of arches or stucco designs. In some shophouses can be found floral patterns, similar to Chinese, on the balcony railings. The second group consists of buildings in the style of Siam-Crypto Colonialism, which imitates the architecture of Western colonial nations in a mainly Europe-influenced classical style. The first group can be found as commercial buildings and shophouses along main roads in the San Pa Khoi area, although not many remain. The large building complex of the missionary school and hospital expanded from its original area on the eastern bank of the Ping River in Nong Seng Subdistrict to Kaew Nawarat Road in 1920, in the upper part of the San Pa Khoi area. The large building features a high ceiling with similar proportions to Western architecture. Later, in 1921, construction became more convenient with the arrival of trains to Chiang Mai province. New construction materials became available which allowed for faster construction of concrete buildings and smaller-sized structures.
The remaining buildings in this area are located at the head of Charoen Mueang Road. Formerly used as a missionary residence and school for girls of the Royal Consort, known to the community as San Pa Khoi Satri School, it was moved to a new building on Kaew Nawarat Road and name changed to Dara Wittayalai School. This building was founded with the intention of providing a medical center for the area after the American Mission Hospital relocated to Kaew Nawarat Road and changed its name to McCormick Hospital. Currently, the hospital is renovating the building into a coffee shop and space for community and youth activities – McCanahan Coffee. Other commercial buildings appear as Chinese shophouses with open space in the middle of the plan and balconies with Chinese floral stucco patterns. Examples of this sort include the one-story shophouse of Limsakdakul Shop, the Wiboon Santi family shophouse on San Pa Khoi Road, and the Luang Anusan Sunthorn Monument Building, with a C-shaped plan, currently maintained by the Nimmanhaemin-Chutima family.
The second group of buildings are built in a central government-style, as more government offices and public utilities were required after Siam gained control of the Lanna Kingdom. Elements were borrowed by the Siam central state from the classical architecture of the Western colonizers to symbolize the ruler’s local authority. These buildings have distinctive features included in their plan, such as a stucco gabled front porch with obtuse corners, like a Greco-Roman temple, windows and doors with arched skylights in a circular arrangement, with some light frames made of wood with detailed fretwork. Established by the Siamese state in the Old City area of Chiang Mai, specifically as the former City Hall and District Court, these buildings are now home to the Chiang Mai City Art and Cultural Center and Lanna Folklife Museum, respectively. Similar buildings still remain in the western riverbank area opposite Wat Ket, such as the post office and Red Cross buildings. Neoclassical buildings in the Siamese Crypto-Colonial style are rare in the San Pa Khoi and Charoen Mueang Road areas. Important buildings such as these in the area include Kawila Camp, built circa 1907 on land owned by tax collector Tek Kim Seng Li Yok Hai, and three other one-story commercial buildings on Charoen Mueang Road with Chinese names stenciled onto the curved skylight above the entrance door, but using English characters.
With the change of government in 1932, the People’s Party gained power to govern the country and sent a military officer to act as commander of Kawila Camp. The architectural style of a group of shophouses located at two intersections on Charoen Mueang Road, namely with San Pa Khoi Road and Bumrungrad – Phon Road, reflect the influence of Art Deco style, similar to shophouses along Ratchadamnoen Klang Road in the old city of Rattanakosin. The shophouses on the northwest corner of San Pa Khoi intersection still belong to the family of the former commander of Kawila Camp. These concrete structure shophouses have a special form with respect to the curved corners and horizontal concrete sunshades and balconies which follow this curvature. The pattern of windows, doors and skylight places focus on the vertical axis and divides the windows with greater frequency.
With the change of government in 1932, the People’s Party gained power to govern the country and sent a military officer to act as commander of Kawila Camp. The architectural style of a group of shophouses located at two intersections on Charoen Mueang Road, namely with San Pa Khoi Road and Bumrungrad – Phon Road, reflect the influence of Art Deco style, similar to shophouses along Ratchadamnoen Klang Road in the old city of Rattanakosin. The shophouses on the northwest corner of San Pa Khoi intersection still belong to the family of the former commander of Kawila Camp. These concrete structure shophouses have a special form with respect to the curved corners and horizontal concrete sunshades and balconies which follow this curvature. The pattern of windows, doors and skylight places focus on the vertical axis and divides the windows with greater frequency. The Teng Huad Li building was erected in 1969. The structural designer was an engineer hired to a national highway construction company from Bangkok, at a time when many buildings were being constructed in Chiang Mai University.
The architecture of the San Pa Khoi and Charoen Mueang Road areas is an element of Chiang Mai’s urban landscape that conveys and demonstrates the history of change in the city, from the transition away from the traditional era of the Lanna Kingdom to the modern nation-state era of Siam. The different architectural styles of each era reflect the changing social, demographic, economic and political systems over time. The arrival of American Presbyterian missionaries and expansion of Western timber trading companies through colonizing states in neighboring areas marked the beginning as Siam took ever-increasing control of the Lanna area, until Chiang Mai was eventually subsumed into the new central state, while ongoing changes at the central political level have affected important government policies regarding the development of local areas such as Chiang Mai to the present day.
เขียนและเรียบเรียงโดย ผู้ช่วยศาสตราจารย์ ดร.วรสิทธิ์ ตันตินิพันธุ์กุล
[1] ที่มา https://readthecloud.co/137-pillars-house/ และ https://www.futurarc.com/project/137-pillars-house-sustainability/
