The Huang Family Ancestral House

The Huang Family Ancestral House

The Huang Family Ancestral House is located in the Xiastreet Group of Longtan Village, built on a terrace along the right side of the Longtan River Valley. It sits against the mountain and faces the water, oriented west to east, with a width of 24.60 meters and an overall depth of 37.80 meters, covering a construction area of approximately 997 square meters. Originally, there was a stone-paved path in front of the house, which served as a major trade route in ancient times. As a result, the front section of the house features a double-eave structure, providing shade and shelter for passersby. This also evokes the legendary tale of Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty taking shelter from the rain in Huizhou...

The architectural floor plan follows a "carpenter’s square" layout and is a three-courtyard, double-winged brick-and-timber structure with a clear central section. The wall opposite the main entrance features a carved Chinese character “福” (fortune), said to be copied from the handwriting of Emperor Qianlong. Turning left leads to a flush-gable screen wall, with ink paintings under the eaves; both the lintel and doorframe are made of bluestone, inscribed at the top with the four characters “箕求丕振” (Seeking Greatness). The central bay of the building is wider than the side bays, supported by four round columns and two gable columns. The eave and golden columns are tapered inward in a “waisted” design. The stone column bases sit atop pedestals. The bases are round-lipped, eight-sided, and decorated with openwork lotus-petal designs, featuring floral, bird, and animal motifs. The beams inside the hall use a circular cross-section to conserve timber. On the purlins, one-tier bracket sets with dougong (bracket arms) in the hemp-leaf style are installed horizontally to help bear the load of the roof structure. A courtyard is situated between the rear hall and the middle hall, with thatched-roof-style parapet walls on either side, and second-floor decorative latticework panels built along both sides. According to elders of the Huang family, the house was built around the mid-Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, and its architectural style belongs to the small-scale tile work of the mountain-region Huizhou style.

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