Yin Yu Tang will be added to Peabody Essex Museum

In a news release, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, announced adding in its site Yin Yu Tang which is a Chinese elegant, rural home originally located in a small, remote village in the southeastern region of Huizhou in Anhui Province. Built in the late Qing dynasty (1644-1911), by a Chinese merchant surnamed Huang, the

Yin Yu Tang

residence was home to the Huang family for over two hundred years. In 1997, the family and the government authorized the house to be transported around the world, to the United States, and opened to the public. The house will be re-erected alongside the newly expanded museum in 2003.

The Museum is now working closely with the renowned architectural firm John G. Waite Associates, Architects to conserve and reassemble the house. Working with them are Chinese carpenters who had assisted in the dismantling of the house, Chinese masons, and American timber frame specialists. Foundation stones, roof tiles, columns, column bases and beams are being conserved and refitted for reassembly. Curators from the museum are concurrently researching the village, regional architecture, the many artifacts from the house and numerous documents from the Huang family's history. Together, this team is reconstructing the multi-layered realms and times of Yin Yu Tang. For more information, contact http://www.yingyutang.org.