Columbia Country Club
The swimming pool is still, a lone leaf skittering across its mirrored surface. In the ballroom, the ghosts of glamorous couples fox trot and waltz out onto the verandah. Listen carefully in the empty bowling alley, and you might hear the whispers of those who crowded in here when it was a Japanese internment camp. You won’t find the Columbia Country Club on any modern map, but the beautiful buildings of the onetime social hub for Shanghai’s American community still stand. Though empty now and closed to the public, the doors were recently unlocked for Historic Shanghai, thanks to the kindness of an introduction by historian and author Greg Leck.
(Update: This post was written following a 2014 visit. In 2018, the Columbia Country Club was redeveloped as and is now part of an F&B / lifestyle development called Columbia Circle. The sprawling grounds are gone, but the main Club building, the swimming pool, and building that housed the bowling alley remain. The former country club building opened in December 2020 as the Tsutaya Bookstore.)
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