Charles Dewey Culbertson’s residence on Route Ghisi
110 Route Ghisi, today’s 110 Yueyang Road.
An American in Shanghai (Bill Callahan, 2016) is a documentary that tracks down the residence of C. D. Culbertson (“Uncle Chuck”) and finds it at 110 Yueyang Road, former Route Ghisi, heavily guarded and used by the Police Research Institute. Using family photos and external archival footage, the documentary also shows some of our favorite historians - Professor Robert Bickers and Tess Johnston. I tried to look up more details on the Culbertsons and their home in Shanghai.
C. D. Culbertson and L. M. Fleming, in May 1926. All historic photos are stills from An American in Shanghai (Bill Callahan, 2016).
Charles Dewey Culbertson, from Stanley, Wisconsin, was the manager of Eastman Kodak Co. in China; he had arrived in 1924. In May 1926, he married Loraine Margaret Fleming in what was described as the largest home wedding of the year. The bride’s father, William S. Fleming, was a high-profile American lawyer, a senior partner at the legal firm Fleming, Franklin and Allman; he had been in Shanghai since 1907.
After a honeymoon in Tsingtao (Qingdao), the couple moved into the opulent house of the wife’s parents, Mr. & Mrs. W. S. Fleming, at 30 Route Ghisi. In 1928, their first daughter was born, named Loraine just like her mother (and grandmother); in February 1930 the younger girl, Anne, was born.
Anne, the younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Culbertson, born in February 1930, sitting in a wicker chair in front of the house on Route Ghisi.
Loraine, Loraine and Anne Culbertson, in December 1932. The China Press.
In 1931-1932 Mrs. and Mr. Fleming died, one after another, while still in the their fifties. The Culbertsons continued loving in their house, which was renumbered 110 Route Ghisi. Just before the war, C. D. Culbertson sold the house. In 1943, he was interned at the Pootung Camp and then repatriated to the USA. He briefly returned to Shanghai after the war; in 1947 his address was the Grosvenor House, Apt. 1206.
C. D. Culbertson residence indicated on the 1939 map. Virtual Shanghai.
The documentary shows multiple views of the house at 110 Route Ghisi.
Northern and western facades.
Southeastern corner, showing the porch on the left.
Children sitting on the porch of the house during a children’s party; Loraine and Anne Culbertson appear to be sitting in the center, bottom.
Southern facade.
Present-day view of the house at 110 Yueyang Road. Image found at https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/0uYoZbjnbzdWk2JMEU_PKA