Former Alt House
The Former Alt House is believed to have been designed by a Western architect, but it was built by Japanese carpenter Koyama Hidenoshin (1828–1898) sometime around 1865. The house was built for the British merchant William John Alt (1840–1908) and his family. Alt arrived in Nagasaki in 1859 and soon made a fortune exporting tea, vegetable wax, and camphor oil. In 1868, he left Nagasaki and moved his family to Osaka. After their departure, ownership of the Former Alt House passed through a number of hands, including a Methodist women’s school and the US consulate, until the Ringer family acquired the house in 1903. It stayed in the Ringer family until the start of World War II, and it was acquired by Kawanami Industries Co. Ltd. in 1943. After a long period of neglect following the war, the house was purchased by Nagasaki City in 1970. The Japanese government designated it an Important Cultural Property in 1972.
The architectural design is a hybrid of Western and Japanese styles. The Tuscan pillars around the veranda and portico are distinctly Western, as are the chimneys, but the building is a Japanese timber-frame construction and the roof is clad with traditional clay tiles.