Astor House: All About Business

While writing these posts and slowly working my way through the many photos, I frequently have to do more research - and with every new piece of information, even more questions arise. And often, I find other interesting photos that were taken in the area around the Astor House while looking at various resources online.

So since more information and photos are piling up, I want to take you back out to Broadway for another look at that busy first block just off the Garden Bridge...

We've seen this corner now several times, and I can promise you many more return visits - it might be the most-photographed corner in all of colonial Shanghai. This is a photo from around 1928 and it shows the usual pedestrian-heavy traffic with several occupied rickshaws crossing Broadway. The Astor House is in its medium-grime era with very little decoration - it seems the "Buffet" sign over the corner door is gone at this time.

There are two policemen keeping the peace, with the one closer to us a Sikh, and the one near the entrance of the hotel apparently wearing a helmet. Both are holding a long candy-cane striped stick for traffic control - a detail I hadn't noticed before.

This photo is approximately from where the first police officer stood in the first shot - but this is now a few years back in the early 1920s - the "Buffet" sign is still above the corner entrance, and the traffic cop is wearing a much darker uniform - and he also brandishes one of those candy-cane traffic sticks!

Broadway looks incredibly busy and it's quite possible that the cop's stick might not be enough. There are two southbound trams stopped behind each other, both unloading throngs of passengers and blocking a number of vehicles behind them down the block.

Let's take a quick stroll across Broadway into North Soochow Road and look at the Mactavish Pharmacy at around the same time - the ever-changing signage is again different, now with a large "The British Dispensary" sign that I hadn't seen this prominently before.

There is a lot going on today, as a large machine is being unloaded. Maybe this was some backroom equipment for the pharmacy - a mill to grind or mix ingredients? A compressor to cool a fridge? It looks quite big and heavy for any of these businesses here.

Speaking of the other businesses - we finally see a little more of the Silk Store, which apparently didn't advertise the main proprietor on their signage. Its official name was Peroshaw & Co. and it dealt in silk from India.

Next to it, and only partially visible, is the awning for R. F. Shroff & Co., another silk merchant.

We return to Broadway in 1928 for a shot from the other end of the block. This photo has several technical problems - it was clearly a rainy day with deep shadows against a white sky, and judging by how crooked the photo is, the photographer must have been rushing to get this shot before a tram or car could wipe him out coming from behind.

But this is one of the best shots of the businesses from Broadway No. 10 to about No. 26 on both sides of the street. These buildings have many dual-use store fronts and also multiple offices upstairs, all with their own signage.

For some of them we can find business listings from the era, but for many of them, all we have is a blurry photo and a fragment of a business name. Let's start on the right side, from the top...

The "Yah... Money Exchange & Gold..." has left no traces behind, which is also true for the "epito(???)" Photo Studio with that very prominent sign at 23-25 Broadway.

To their left at 23 Broadway should be the T.W. Tom, a gentlemen's outfitter, but I can't see a sign for them.

Next, at 19 Broadway is Suzuki & Co., clearly visible here. This is a wholesale and retail merchant for leather and hides and they were also a manufacturer of bags.

Further down on the right should be the early Astoria cafe, but this photo is not clear enough to discern any of that.

On the left side and closest to us, is a sign for a millinery - most likely I. Cantorovich's "Grand Corset House", a "Ladies' and Children's Outfitter" at 28 Broadway. There is a sign obscured by a power pole that seems to also spell out "Canto..." - not sure if this is all one millinery since multiple listings for a variety of milliners exist from 22 Broadway to No. 28.

Beyond that we see a large white sign above the row of windows - that is the sign for the Sine Pharmacy aka Deutsche Apotheke.

...speaking of which, here is the Sine Pharmacy on the left at 14 Broadway - apparently there was an accident and an S.M.P. (Shanghai Municipal Police) Ambulance is in the middle of some crisis management, attracting quite a crowd of onlookers.

The ambulance is parking in front of the long-standing Swatow Handwork Co. at 12 Broadway, manufacturers and exporters of exquisite hand-made embroideries and lace.

At the very right in this photo we see the striped awning of Maison De Modes De Paris that we discussed in our "In Fashion" post a while back, which neatly closes off this round of a very, very busy city block of Shanghai, just around the corner of the Astor House.