Former Walker House
Robert Walker Jr. (1881–1958) bought this house in 1915 and lived in it with his family until his death in 1958. Robert was the son of a Japanese woman named Fukuda Sato (1859–1894) and an English ship captain and businessman named Robert N. Walker Sr. (1851–1941), who first came to Japan in 1874. In 1898, Robert Sr. founded R. N. Walker & Co., and in 1904, he started the Banzai Aerated Water Factory, which produced some of Japan’s first carbonated beverages. In 1908, Robert Sr. moved to Canada, and Robert Jr. took over his father’s businesses. Robert Jr. became a Japanese citizen in 1928, and he was able to avoid internment or deportation during World War II.
The Former Walker House was originally built at No. 28 Minamiyamate, but it was donated to Glover Garden and relocated here in 1974. This building is a typical example of the wooden houses built in the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement during the last decades of the nineteenth century—it has a large veranda, bay windows, a fireplace, and a Japanese-style tiled roof. The interior furnishings were donated by the Walker family.