Birthday Buildings in Shanghai (1921)
Continuing the tradition started in 2020 by the entry on Birthday Buildings in Shanghai (1920), here the list of Shanghai buildings that were erected in 1921 and became centenarians in 2021.
1921
1921 was a year of frenetic construction activity in Shanghai. The magazines of the day claimed that if someone were to leave the city and return in a year, they would not recognize the place. Indeed, many projects were ongoing simultaneously, most notably on the Bund: the Standard Oil Building (Asiatic Petroleum Building) at No. 1, the N.K.K. Building at No. 5, the Chartered Bank of India at No. 18, the Jardine Matheson and Co. at No. 27, and the Glen Line Building at No. 28. In the center of the Bund, at No. 12, the construction began of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation headquarters; the cornerstone was laid in May:
But here we celebrate the buildings whose construction was finished in 1921.
• The Robert Dollar Building, on Canton Road, opened in 1921. The initial project was by Murphy and Dana Architects, but the final project belonged to Palmer and Turner. The current address is 51 Guangdong Lu 广东路51号.
Dollar Building in 1922.
• China and South Sea Bank 中南银行, designed by Moorhead and Halse, was built in 1921. It stands today at 110 Hankou Road 汉口路110号.
Former China and South Sea Bank, 110 Hankow Road.
• Just off the Bund, on Avenue Edward VII, the Great Northern Telegraph’s new building was finished in 1921. The designers were Davies and Brooke Architects.
The Great Northern Telegraph (center) and the Standard Oil Building (right), both built in 1921.
• Somekh Building 沙美大楼, at today’s 190 East Beijing Road 北京东路190号, opened in 1921, designed by Atkinson and Dallas Architects:
• The Headquarters of the National YMCA, on Museum Road, was inaugurated in April 1921. Today’s address is 131 Huqiu Lu 虎丘路131号:
• The Shanghai Waterworks building, 484 Kiangse (Jiangxi) Road (江西中路484号), appeared in 1921, designed by Palmer and Turner:
Elevation drawing of Shanghai Waterworks headquarters on Kiangse Road.
• Villa Rosenfeld, on the corner of Avenue Petain and Route Francis Garnier, was built in 1921 by the designs of Abelardo Lafuente. Used as a restaurant in the last decades, it stands at 11 Dongping Road 东平路11号:
North facade of Villa Rosenfeld.
• A number of new buildings of Shanghai College 沪江大学 appeared in 1921, designed by Murphy and Dana Architects; the big construction on the campus was ongoing since 1919.
Among the buildings that were “born” in 1921 but died before reaching a hundred-year mark, we’ve noted these:
• The Commercial Museum of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce opened in November 1921. It was a“three-storeyed structure at the rear of the Chamber of Commerce, facing North Honan Road.” While the main building still stands, the museum is gone (it would be in the way of the much-widened North Henan Road).
Museum of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, inaugurated in 1921.
• Shanghai’s first apartment house, Dollar Apartments, designed by A. Corrit, opened in spring 1921. It used to occupy the southeast corner of Avenue Joffre and Avenue du Roi Albert. In 1929, it was torn down to build the Auditorium.
• Ningpo Guild’s headquarters 宁波同乡会 opened in May 1921, on Tibet Road. It is no longer there.
• The Shanghai Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of Hongkong 工商银行, on the southeast corner of Ningpo and Kiangse Roads, opened in November 1921. The four-story building building has not survived, and I don’t have its picture. There is a modern high-rise on that spot now.
• Ningpo Bank 上海四明银行, at 232-240 Peking Road, SW corner of Kiangse Road, opened in 1921; it was designed by Atkinson & Dallas:
• The Ritz Café, on North Honan Road, the work of Abelardo Lafuente for Carlos García, opened in spring 1921. Modeled on the best casinos of Monte Carlo and Buenos Aires, it was called “a veritable palace”. More about this place is here.
Interior of the Ritz Café.
Here is a full list of new buildings in the International Settlement built in 1921:
See also: Birthday Buildings in Shanghai (1920).