Inside Old Shanghai’s American Club

This Saturday (Nov 2, 3pm), ahead of the U.S. election, we’re taking a stroll through the story of Americans in Old Shanghai. If there had been such a thing as election watch parties in Old Shanghai, they would certainly have been held in the stately American Club. Here’s its story, and a peek inside.  To book the walk, click here.

Even with decades of unwashed grime and a chipped façade, the Georgian edifice on Fuzhou Road always maintained its grace, unbowed even by the unsavory photographs of crime busts displayed on its stately brick walls in the days when it served as a court. So back in 2018, it was especially nice to see the onetime American Club getting a thorough and seemingly sympathetic renovation before its next act – this time as the Shanghai Financial Court. 

The building had been closed up tight for years, ever since the court moved out in the 1990s (save that brief, glorious moment in 2008 when the Hungarian Consulate held the Year of Hudec exhibition in the ghostly, unrenovated. space) So it was a real treat to take advantage of the construction chaos and wander through the building, all the way up to the former roof garden.

The Origins of the Shanghai American Club

The seed of Shanghai’s American Club was a bridge club – “the Slam Club” – started in 1916. The club grew quickly, and was incorporated in 1917 (in Delaware). By 1921, it had outgrown its premises on Nanjing Road. The new Fuzhou Road site for the club was purchased in 1922, and by the time construction started, membership had reportedly reached 1,000 – 90 percent of whom were American, although the Club was open to all foreign nationalities.

The building was to be a showcase for American materials, as far as was possible, and the American architectural firm of R.A. Curry was hired to design the building. It was Curry’s associate who did most of the work on this building, a promising young Hungarian architect named László Hudec.

Inside the American Club

Men – and it was all men, until 1937 – arrived to an entrance hall “of colonial effect, with marble pilasters,” reported the China Weekly Review, then mounted the Italian marble double staircase to the main floor, or descended to the basement. In the basement, Russian masseurs pounded out kinks in the Turkish baths, Russian tonsorial artists snipped in the barbershop, and there was a bowling alley and pin pool, too.

The main floor contained a capacious bar, adjacent to the billiards room, the latter  in oak paneling, with beamed ceilings.

The first floor contained the card room, lounge, library – all in oak – and a mah-jongg room “designed in the correct Chinese style by an expert Chinese designer brought from Peking,” reported the China Weekly Review. Sadly, this particular room seems to have been dismantled, so we’re very grateful have the original photo from Hudec’s collection, below.

The second, third, and fourth floors – accessed by the then-state-of-the-art Otis lifts – were the Club residences, for members or their guests. Seventeen bedrooms on each floor, each with private bathroom and built-in closets. “All the elements of home comforts with those of Shanghai social life,” gushed the North China Herald. On our wander through, these were the least interesting floors – just a stretch of hallway with rooms on either side. But then came the pièce de résistance …

The fifth floor Dining Room and Assembly Room is, quite possibly, the loveliest room in all Shanghai. Just imagine when it was all done up: American maplewood floors, polished to a high sheen, grand chandeliers dripping with crystals, rich velour curtains in wine red and bronze, and, over the fireplace, a 6 feet, 2 inch (1.87m) tall oil painting of George Washington at Valley Forge.

Lost George Washington

The Washington portrait, painted by Delaware artist Stanley Arthurs, was commissioned to replace the Club’s replica of a Gilbert Stuart painting of the first President, with the costs mainly covered by the DuPont company. For the DuPonts, it was a simple calculus: an investment in goodwill that they hoped would lead to strong business relationships with the American community.

Unveiled in 1926 at the Majestic Hotel, the portrait traveled back there once a year for the grand Washington Ball, held in celebration of George Washington’s birthday. The Ball had to be held outside the resolutely all-male Club, you see, so that the ladies could attend! Few alive today have seen the portrait in person, though: in 1941, Japanese officers took over the American Club, cut the George Washington portrait from its frame, and spirited it away. It has never been seen again.

Although Club was an all-male preserve, the Dining Room did have a ladies’ room, decorated in grey tones with French plate mirrors. That proved quite useful in  1937, when the Club inaugurated a Ladies’ Section, no doubt driven by economic considerations, as war drove increasing numbers of members out of Shanghai. The Assembly Room was converted into a Ladies’ Lounge, with tables for mahjong and bridge, and the ladies had their own reception area on the ground floor. Although initially open only to member’s wives, there was discussion about opening it further, as there had been keen interest from businesswomen.

The sixth floor bears the low ceilings and narrow stairs of the staff quarters, and indeed, this is where the kitchen and servants quarters were located, for proximity to the Dining Room. It’s worth heading up there, though, because that route also takes you up to the roof.

The rooftop garden is long gone, and today’s view is very different – but you can still see some of what an American Club member would have seen: the sprawling Municipal Council building across the street, the back of the fire station, the spires of Trinity Cathedral, and Elliott Hazzard’s Shanghai Power building. Perhaps the Financial Court has revived the garden, but they’re not letting us up there to check, so we can only speculate!

The American Club Legacy

When the American Club opened, the North China Herald wrote, “With the opening of the club, the American community has made it clear that it intends to remain in Shanghai … When Americans in the homeland settled on the frontier, they first erected a school building, then a church, but when they built a clubhouse, it was certain that they intended to remain where they were.”

Shanghai’s Americans remained where they were for another quarter century, but the vicissitudes of history meant that clubhouse or no clubhouse, they could not remain. But for all these years, their clubhouse has stubbornly remained where it was, its long-ago story still in the bricks, plaster, oak, and ironwork put up more than a century ago.

Sources:

“Shanghai Americans to Have Million Dollar Club Home”, The China Weekly Review, November 10, 1923, accessed July 28 2018.

“American Club’s New Building: Formal Opening: Comfort and Luxury in Every Way”, The North China Herald, April 4, 1925, accessed July 28 2018.

“American Club Popular on Opening Day with Women; More Enquiries are Received”, The China Press, July 2, 1937, accessed July 25 2018.

“The Washington Ball: Painting of George Washington Unveiled at Monday Night’s Brilliant Function”. North-China Herald, February 27, 1926. accessed December 5, 2023.

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