Stanley Murray House

This guide to Stanley Murray House in Hong Kong opens on a puzzle: granite laid in 1844 for British garrison quarters in Central, a building that survived cholera, typhoons and Japanese occupation, and gained a reputation dark enough that monks were brought in twice to perform exorcisms. It follows the building into 1982, when the government sold its original site and workers dismantled it stone by stone rather than tear it down. You'll hear what happened to those thousands of numbered stones over the two decades that followed. Look closely at the joins in the columns while you listen.