Then and now: the Hengshan Lu icon featured in a 1940s Kodak ad

Photographs: courtesy Shanghai American School

Shanghai has a rich and long history, with echoes of the past reverberating into the present day. We take a look at historical buildings, then and now.

Then

1923, Shanghai American School (SAS)

This Hengshan Lu landmark (even featured in a Kodak ad in the ’40s) was the digs of Shanghai’s oldest international school through the mid-1900s. Founded in 1912 with a small campus in Hongkou, by 1917 SAS was on the hunt for a bigger space. The founders bought a 15-acre plot of rural farmland on what was then Avenue Pétain, and made it into a sprawling campus with 300 students when it opened in the autumn of 1923. 

Largely serving as SAS’ Administration Building from 1923-1949, the building pictured was modelled after Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. During WWII, SAS officially shut in 1941, but the Avenue Pétain campus lived on in the form of one of three ‘bootleg’ campuses until 1949. And in 1950, the school closed for 30 years. 

Now

2018, China Shipbuilding Industry Corp No 704 Research Institute

While Shanghai American School itself once again thrives today – with almost 2,800 students across two campuses in Minhang and Pudong – its most iconic building, still easily recognisable for its distinctive cupola, is no longer open to the public. Now, it houses a state-owned research institute specialising in industrial ship-building equipment. 

📲 Research courtesy Historic Shanghai (visit historic-shanghai.com or follow WeChat ID ‘HistoricShanghai’ for more information). 

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