U.S. Ambassador's Official Residence

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Official Residence of the US Ambassador
108 Witthayu (Wireless) Road
BANGKOK, Thailand

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The house was built in 1914 by Horatio Bailey, a British engineer who first came
to Siam at the turn of the century in response to an advertisement of the
Bangkok Dock Company, one of the first American firms active in Siam. Mr.
Bailey went on to become one of the founders of Siam Motor Works. He also
established himself as a purveyor of royal silver to His Majesty Rama IV, who was so pleased with Bailey’s services that he conferred upon him the Thai
name and rank of Phra Padibat Rajaprasong, “one who carries out the royal
desire”

After Mr. Bailey’s death in England in 1920, the house was administered by the
solicitors Bangueley and Tooth until September 1926 when it was bought by the
Minister of finance. Mr. Bailey’s family remained in the house for only a short
period after his death, after which it was used as the seat of Belgian legation
from August 1922 to October 1927.

In 1927 Prince Traidos Prabandh, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, requested that
the property be transferred to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the use of
Raymond B. Stevens, the fourth American Advisor to the Ministry. Mr. Stevens,
in turn, assisted the Belgian legation in securing another location. Up until this
time, the American advisors, who were appointed directly by the Ministry and
were not part of the official American legation, had no official residence.
After the property was transferred to the Foreign Ministry, Mr. Stevens used it
as his official residence until he left Thailand in 1935, thus becoming the first
American occupant in the house. The property was also made available to his
successor, Fedrick R. Dolbeare, who lived in it for a number of years prior to
World War II.

The property was taken over by the Japanese forces during World War II. Little
information is recorded about the Japanese use of the house except that troops
were quartered there. Motor oil stained the patio tiles and faint traces of
scorch marks left by their charcoal braziers can still be seen in one or two
places on the teak floor boards.

After the war, Josephine Stanton, wife of the first American Ambassador to
Thailand, Edwin Stanton, explored the possibility of obtaining the property as
the official residence of the American Ambassador. Despite the “shocking
disrepair” of the house, Mrs. Stanton decided to ask the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs if they would undertake renovation of the house. Although somewhat
taken aback, the Ministry agreed. The private home of a British employee of
one of the early American firms active in Siam became the residence of the
first American Ambassador to Thailand.