The Broadway Mansions (, Shanghainese: Pahlowe Dusa) is a nineteen-floor Art Deco five-star hotel in Shanghai, China.It is described in 1993 as "Shanghai's best known building"; see "Shanghai", The New Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th ed., Vol. 27 (Encyclopædia Britannica, 1993):274;Dmitri Kessel, On Assignment: Dmitri Kessel, Life photographer (Abrams, 1985):149.Noël Barber, The Fall of Shanghai: The Communist Take-over in 1949 (Macmillan, 1979):96. and was for over five decades one of the primary symbols of Shanghai.Sidney Shapiro, An American in China: Thirty Years in the People's Republic (New World Press, 1979):55.
Completed in 1934, the same year as the 19 feet taller Park Hotel. Upon its completion it became the tallest apartment building in Shanghai and remained so for several decades. Located near the confluence of Suzhou Creek and the Huangpu River, as well as the northern end of The Bund, it was built by the architectural and engineering firm of Palmer and Turner, and its completion in 1935 heralded the commencement of the high-rise building era in Asia.Georges Binder, Tall Buildings of Asia & Australia (Images Publishing, 2001):ifc. It was Shanghai's "closest approach to a modern American skyscraper".Bruce Douglass and Ross Terrill, China and Ourselves: Explorations and Revisions by a New Generation (Beacon Press, 1971):90. It commands possibly the best view of the Bund and Huangpu.
Originally called "The Broadway Mansions", it was renamed "Shanghai Mansions" by the Shanghai Municipal Council in 1951, but reverted to its original name after China opened up again to the West. The Broadway Mansions has been owned and operated by the Shanghai Hengshan (Group) Holdings Company (上海市人民政府直属的上海衡山集团) since at least 1985.
Location The Broadway Mansions Hotel is located at 20 Bei Suzhou Road (formerly 1 Broadway), Shanghai, in the North Bund area of the Hongkou District. It is at the northern end of the Waibaidu Bridge (Garden Bridge). It is at the corner of Bei Suzhou Road, Huangpu Road, and Daming Road (formerly Broadway), and is less than from the Suzhou Creek,Kang Yan and Robert Hale Smitheram, Deciphering Shanghai, 1990–2000 (Australian-Chinese Press, 2002):215. close to its confluence with the Huangpu River. It is also bounded by Haining Road at the rear, and Wusong Road South on the west. It is across Daming Road from the Astor House Hotel. Before the mansions were constructed, a building owned by the British firm Shanghai electric construction company stood on its site.
History
Broadway Mansions (1934–1951)
Construction for the Broadway Mansions was started in 1930, and completed by October 1934, and cost $10 million (Mexican) (approximately US$3.4 million at that time)."Shanghai Offices of Times Searched; Chief Correspondent to Make a Protest to Japan - His Apartment Also Visited", The New York Times (19 August 1937):2; "The unit of Chinese currency is the yuan, a silver dollar loosely called Mexican. Since it fluctuates less in terms of Chinese commodities than in terms of gold, it is the only fair measure of Chinese values. Hence the dollars throughout this article are Mexican, unless otherwise indicated. The present value of the Mexican dollar is about thirty-four cents." See "The Shanghai Boom", Fortune 11:1 (January 1935); ; Chang Huei Hsin, "Essays of the History of Chinese Currencies", (Tai Young Publication Co. 1994); "Mexican Eagle Dollars"; http://www.sycee-on-line.com/Mexico_dollars.htm The Mansions was "originally built in 1934 as an exclusive residential hotel by the British".J. D. Brown and Sharon Owyang, Frommer's Shanghai, 3rd ed. (John Wiley and Sons, 2004):75. The Mansions was built by Ye Guang Estate Property Company, for the Shanghai Land Investment, CompanyKenneth Frampton and Guan Zhaoye, World Architecture 1900-2000: A Critical Mosaic, Vol. 9 (Springer, 2000):59. controlled by Sir Victor Sassoon.犹Pan Guang (潘光), Jews in China 太人在中国: [中英文本], 3rd ed. (五洲传播出版社, 2005):1896. Additionally, Sassoon owned the Cathay Mansions, another apartment building in the French Concession.Peter Shen, Villa Shen: An Old Shanghai Story (Pelanduk Pub., 1997). Along with the two other tallest buildings in Shanghai, (the Palace Hotel and Sassoon House), these skyscrapers were all owned by Baghdadi Jews.Journal of Indian History [Dept. of History, University of Kerala] 68-71 (1992):129; Roman Malek, From Kaifeng--to Shanghai: Jews in China (Steyler, 2000):354. The chairman of the board was Harry Edward Arnhold (born 16 January 1879 in Hong Kong), a Briton of German ancestry who had been educated in Britain,Robert A. Bickers, Britain in China: Community Culture and Colonialism, 1900–1949 (Manchester University Press ND, 1999):132Carl T. Smith, "The German Speaking Community in Hong Kong 1846-1918", 26-30. the chairman of the Sassoon-controlled Arnhold & Company,Arnhold & Co., a trading company that became a leading distributor of building materials and engineering equipment, was founded as the German-registered Arnhold & Karberg & Co. in 1866 on Shameen Island in Canton (Guangzhou) by Jacob Arnhold and Peter Karsberg, and opened branches in Hong Kong (1867) and Shanghai (1881), and had 37 branches by 1901 (see also Carl T. Smith, "The German Speaking Community in Hong Kong 1846-1918", 26-30.; http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/44/4402104.pdf; and "About Arnhold: History'; http://www.arnhold.com.hk/en/about-arnhold/history/ ); including branches in Hankow, Tientsin (Tianjin), Peking (Beijing), Mukden, London and New York (see E. C. Knuth, The Empire of "The City": The Secret History of British Financial Power (Book Tree, 2006):72). From 1897 to 1910, at least one of the Arnhold family was chairman of the company's board of directors: Jacob Arnhold (1897–1900), Philipp Arnhold (1900–1905; and 1906-1910); and Harry E. Arnhold (1905–1906). (see Frans-Paul van der Putten, Corporate Behaviour and Political Risk: Dutch companies in China, 1903–1941 (Research School of Asian, African and Amerindian Studies, Leiden University, 2001):74.) Due to hostility to German companies as a consequence of World War I, and the seizure of German companies by the British and their allies, H.E. Arnhold and his brother, Charles Herbert Arnhold (born 19 September 1881 in London), "advertised themselves out of the well-known Anglo-German concern, Arnhold, Karberg & Co.". (see Edward Manico Gull, British Economic Interests in the Far East (International Secretariat, Institute of Pacific Relations, 1943):119; The Law Journal Reports 85 (E.B. Ince, 1916):133.), which had four equal partners: the two Arnhold brothers; Ernest Goetz, a Swiss born German subject; and Max Niclassen, of Berlin, Germany (see Ernest Charles Meldon Trehern and Albert Wallace Grant, Prize Cases Heard and Decided in the Prize Court During the Great War, Great Britain High Court of Justice, Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division, High Court of Justice Vol. 1(Stevens, 1916):644-645). Initially they formed the firm of Messrs. H.E. Arnhold (China), but on 1 October 1917, they incorporated its successor, Arnhold Brothers Limited (China), in Hong Kong, under the British ordinances, but with headquarters in Shanghai (see Asia: Journal of the American Asiatic Association 18:11 (November 1918):984), which was reconstituted as a British company after 1919. Sir Victor Sassoon became the majority shareholder in 1923 after a merger (see C.R. Maguire, China Stock and Share Handbook (Office of the North-China Daily News and Herald, ltd., 1925, 100 for list of directors). According to Stella Dong, its "most attractive asset was the Cathay Land Company, ownership of which gave Sir Victor control of a number of apartment buildings and a hotel in the International Settlement as well as choice housing estates in the French Concession". (See Stella Dong, Shanghai: The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City 1842-1949 (HarperCollins, 2001):218-219). Arnhold's served as a front for Sassoon's political interests in the International Settlement. (See Robert A. Bickers, Britain in China: Community Culture and Colonialism, 1900–1949 (Manchester University Press ND, 1999):132). Headquartered in the Arnhold Building at 6 Kiukiang Road, Shanghai (see Allister Macmillan, Seaports of the Far East: Historical and Descriptive, Commercial and Industrial, Facts, Figures, & Resources, 2nd ed. (W.H. & L. Collingridge, 1925):57) until its relocation in 1930 to the third floor of Sassoon House at 1 Nanking Road (see Stanley Jackson, The Sassoons (Dutton, 1968):217; Ernest O. Hauser, Shanghai: City for Sale (Harcourt, Brace and company, 1940):284.), Arnhold & Co. flourished until 1949 when, with the change of Government in China, the headquarters relocated to Hong Kong. Mr. Maurice Green who had been associated with the company since the Sassoon takeover, acquired the controlling interest in Arnhold in 1957 (see About Us; History). a former Chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai (1923);The China Who's Who ... (foreign) (Kelley & Walsh, 1924):18. and the sometime chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Council (SMC).According to Ernest O. Hauser, "Arnhold was Sir Victor's lieutenant." (See Ernest O. Hauser, Shanghai: City for Sale (Harcourt, Brace and company, 1940):284), or as Bickers put it more bluntly: "Harry was his man on the SMC." (see Robert A. Bickers, Britain in China: Community Culture and Colonialism, 1900–1949 (Manchester University Press ND, 1999):132) Arnhold reelection as a member of the SMC in 1930 was defeated due to his "reformist" tendencies. He also attracted antisemitic and anti-German hostility. Arnhold's defeat was warmly welcomed, as the diplomats disliked him. "Not an attractive personality", noted Sir Miles Lampson, the then British Minister. However, Arnhold reemerged as a settler community leader in the 1930s, serving on the committee of serving on the committee of the British Residents' Association, and then back on the SMC from 1932 to 1937, chairing it in 1934-37. See Robert A. Bickers, Britain in China: Community Culture and Colonialism, 1900–1949 (Manchester University Press ND, 1999):132. The primary developer and financer of the Broadway Mansions was Dr. Maurice Benjamin who had "financed and built much of the Shanghai coast".Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Treasures of Taliesin: Seventy-Seven Unbuilt Designs, 2nd ed. (Pomegranate, 1999):29. Benjamin, who was one of the more prominent landowners and businessmen in Shanghai, considered an expert on real estate, was also a leading board member of the Shanghai Land Investment Company, and a former member of the Shanghai Municipal Council (1920–1921),Robert Bickers and Christian Henriot, New Frontiers: Imperialism's New Communities in East Asia, 1842–1953 (Manchester University Press ND, 2000):45. According to Maisie Meyer, "Broadway Mansions was hailed as Maurice Benjamin's masterpiece."