page_title: Consulate General of the United States, Shanghai
section_title: The Early Twentieth Century
hierarchical_section_title: Consulate General of the United States, Shanghai / History / The Early Twentieth Century
caption_attribution_description: English: Flag of the United States at the entrance to US Consulate, Shanghai, 1934.
context_page_description: The Consulate General of the United States in Shanghai is one of the six American diplomatic and consular posts in the People's Republic of China.
  First established in 1844 following the signing of the Treaty of Wanghia, the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai had a presence until the Communist Revolution in China and it closed in 1950. It reopened in 1980 at its present location at 1469 Huai Hai Zhong Road in an early 20th-century mansion.
  The Consulate General has two other offices in Shanghai. The Consular Section is located in the Westgate Mall and the Public Affairs Section is located in the Shanghai Centre both on Nanjing West Road.
context_section_description: In 1901, the consulate returned to Hongkew, when Consul General John Goodnow agreed a ten-year lease to take over the old Club de Recrio building at 36 Whangpoo Road on a block away from the previous premises leased by Seward.
  By the early twentieth century, more than 1,500 Americans called Shanghai home.  The American community contributed to the economy and life of the city, founding businesses, hospitals, schools, and educational exchanges.
  In 1911 a lease was signed for the Consulate General to move to six buildings in the Clifton Estate at 13-19 Whangpoo Road to accommodate a quickly growing staff and range of responsibilities.  These buildings were occupied by the consulate, prison, post office, and two residences (at nos. 13 and 19).  The United States Court for China was located across the private road in No. 11.  In 1916, Mr Edward Isaac Ezra purchased the buildings with the intent of developing them.  The US Consul General, Thomas Sammons contacted Mr Ezra who agreed to sell the premises to the US Government for the same price he had paid for them.  These new offices — at a cost of $355,000 (425,000 taels) — were the most expensive U.S. embassy or consulate in the world at that time.  The area was 6.258 mow (4172 square metres) and had a 275-foot (25 metres) water frontage. 
  The area came to be known as consular row with - starting from Garden Bridge - the Russian, German, American and Japanese consulates all located in a row at the confluence of Suzhou Creek and the Huangpu River.  
  In the 1930s, after substantial lobbying, it was decided to re-build the Consulate General.  In 1930, the U.S. Consulate General moved south of Suzhou Creek, leaving the old American Settlement for the first time in nearly 30 years.  The consulate was first located in the old Kalee Hotel at 248-250 Kiangse Road (now Jiangxi Road). The government offices were located on the Ground Floor and the Consulate and United States Court for China on the first floor.  The upper floors were used as accommodation for consular staff.  The US Marshall also built the consular jail in as part of the new premises.
  The old Whangpoo Road premises were demolished in 1931 and the original plan was that the consulate would be re-built within a year.  However, in 1932, Congress withdrew the appropriations for 1933, leaving the consulate in the old Kalee Hotel building.  Appropriations were obtained in 1935 and grand plans for the new consulate announced. These never came to fruition. (The site and the site of the former German Consulate General next door that was demolished in 1937 is now the location of the Seagull Hotel which was built in the 1980s).
  In 1936, following a decision to raze the old Kalee Hotel, the consulate moved to the newly completed Development Building on the southwest corner of Kiangse Road and Foochow Road (now Fuzhou Road).  The 4th and 5th Floor were occupied by the consulate, the 6th Floor, by the United States Court for China and the United States Treasury attache, with the 7th Floor having 3 suites for consular officers.  Other consular officers moved to residential premises in the rest of Shanghai.
  By the 1930s, the Consulate General hosted a staff of ten State Department officials, a trade commissioner from the Department of Commerce, and an agent from the Department of Agriculture, as well as the United States Court for China, a jail, wharf, post office, and a parade ground for visiting Navy and Marine detachments.
caption: Flag of the United States at half mast (mourning the wife of the US Consul-General Edwin S. Cunningham) at the entrance to US Consulate at the Kalee Hotel in 1934.
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