American Club - Shanghai - 1925
Foochow Rd, Shanghai.
Being a cosmopolitan city, whilst the various nationalities mixed in business and in pleasure, each had their own sanctuaries where they could be amongst their own; the British predominated at the stuffy Shanghai Club (see my photo at www.flickr.com/photos/23268776@N03/2330535577 ), the Germans had their Club Concordia (until it was confiscated during WWI) and the French had their Cercle Sportif Francais. However, it was not until the early WWI years that the Americans, whilst still neutral, established their own club due to a growing distrust by their British cousins of the United States' neutrality and isolationism in that conflict.
In a conscious attempt to evoke America's own architectural heritage, this handsome club building was designed in the Georgian Revival style which harked back to American colonial architecture of the Thirteen Colonies. The bricks were imported from the USA. Whilst the architectural firm of RA Curry was indeed American, the design was drawn up by the prolific Hungarian, Ladislav Hudec who designed many of Shanghai's most memorable buildings from 1919 to 1945. The club provided a bar, two dining rooms, a library and writing room, rooms for billiards, cards and mahjong, a bowling alley in the basement and 50 bachelor bedrooms. According to a Fortune magazine profile of Shanghai in 1935, the club contrasted with the "gloomy Shanghai Club whose furniture is heavy and sedate" while "the red-brick American Club is bright with American maple and Colonial furniture, its lobby faintly reminiscent of a well-decorated hospital. It is full of eager, smiling men who take you by the hand, whether they have met you or not. And the bar is packed."
An article in 1935 edition of the Shanghai Evening Post & Mercury described the club thus:-
"No institution in Shanghai plays a greater or more important role in the social life of Americans than does the American Club... It is more than just a club; it is a meeting place for American businessmen and their friends; it is a social rendezvous; it is equipped with a fine library, a comfortable bar, residential rooms, a large dining room and small private dining rooms; it boasts excellent American-style cuisine, and it is in every respect an institution of which the officers and members have a reason to be proud."
For all its Yankee bonhomie and boisterousness, the American Club did not admit women - except the annual Ladies' Night and during events like balls - nor African Americans. However in the late 1930s, it did open its doors to membership by American-educated Chinese or those with strong business connections to the US.
To view a photograph of the American Club taken in the post-WWII years, complete with expectant rickshaw coolie, go to the flickr site of ljchan0522 at www.flickr.com/photos/10232046@N00/4745420788/
The building is currently lying empty, presumably waiting for a new owner and a new lease on life.
American Club - Shanghai - 1925
Foochow Rd, Shanghai.
Being a cosmopolitan city, whilst the various nationalities mixed in business and in pleasure, each had their own sanctuaries where they could be amongst their own; the British predominated at the stuffy Shanghai Club (see my photo at www.flickr.com/photos/23268776@N03/2330535577 ), the Germans had their Club Concordia (until it was confiscated during WWI) and the French had their Cercle Sportif Francais. However, it was not until the early WWI years that the Americans, whilst still neutral, established their own club due to a growing distrust by their British cousins of the United States' neutrality and isolationism in that conflict.
In a conscious attempt to evoke America's own architectural heritage, this handsome club building was designed in the Georgian Revival style which harked back to American colonial architecture of the Thirteen Colonies. The bricks were imported from the USA. Whilst the architectural firm of RA Curry was indeed American, the design was drawn up by the prolific Hungarian, Ladislav Hudec who designed many of Shanghai's most memorable buildings from 1919 to 1945. The club provided a bar, two dining rooms, a library and writing room, rooms for billiards, cards and mahjong, a bowling alley in the basement and 50 bachelor bedrooms. According to a Fortune magazine profile of Shanghai in 1935, the club contrasted with the "gloomy Shanghai Club whose furniture is heavy and sedate" while "the red-brick American Club is bright with American maple and Colonial furniture, its lobby faintly reminiscent of a well-decorated hospital. It is full of eager, smiling men who take you by the hand, whether they have met you or not. And the bar is packed."
An article in 1935 edition of the Shanghai Evening Post & Mercury described the club thus:-
"No institution in Shanghai plays a greater or more important role in the social life of Americans than does the American Club... It is more than just a club; it is a meeting place for American businessmen and their friends; it is a social rendezvous; it is equipped with a fine library, a comfortable bar, residential rooms, a large dining room and small private dining rooms; it boasts excellent American-style cuisine, and it is in every respect an institution of which the officers and members have a reason to be proud."
For all its Yankee bonhomie and boisterousness, the American Club did not admit women - except the annual Ladies' Night and during events like balls - nor African Americans. However in the late 1930s, it did open its doors to membership by American-educated Chinese or those with strong business connections to the US.
To view a photograph of the American Club taken in the post-WWII years, complete with expectant rickshaw coolie, go to the flickr site of ljchan0522 at www.flickr.com/photos/10232046@N00/4745420788/
The building is currently lying empty, presumably waiting for a new owner and a new lease on life.