Astor House: The Crossroads

This view of the combined first block of Broadway and Seward Road in 1915 is very similar to our previous look down this street, but this new photo was taken some 10 meters away from the corner entrance to the Buffet and Bar of the Astor House.

A man in a long coat, caught mid-stride near the right edge of the photo, seems to be heading straight for the buffet entrance. Let's imagine for now that they are on their way to lunch - keep that in mind for later...

Again, as mentioned with other early photos, it is striking that there are no cars or trucks on the road, as at this time other metropolitan centers of the world were already busy with cars everywhere. Here it is all hand-drawn carts and rickshaws and the tram coming up the street towards the Garden Bridge behind us.

There are lots of pedestrians out and about in this picture and due to the much better quality of the photo compared to earlier efforts, it gives us a little more of a glimpse into the life of the inhabitants of Shanghai.

This photo also gives us a new view of the Mactavish drug store with an additional sign along the Seward Road side: "Hongkew Medical Hall" - this drug store truly has many names.

"Hongkew" is the old spelling for Hongkou, which remains the name of this district of Shanghai with Suzhou Creek and the Pujiang River being the southern boundary.

Further along the street are a row of storefronts and unfortunately we will barely ever see any details of these shops. Beyond the tall white building (I'm still unsure about its purpose) is the tall tower and cupola of the Japanese Post and Telegraph office.

Here is another view of this street corner from further along North Soochow Road, looking back towards the intersection of North Soochow Road, Seward Road (or Broadway), Whangpoo Road and the north end of the Garden Bridge.

This photo is also from the mid-1910s, probably around 1915, with the trees along the river still standing across from the Astor House. Two trams are passing each other and a lively crowd is populating the intersection.

On the left we can see the neighbor of the silk store which is itself the neighbor of the Mactavish drug store. Unfortunately, this is a low-resolution scan and I've never found a better version of this postcard online. So the store at the very left is for now just "Shanghai ..."

All this walking has made me hungry. In the next post, let's follow that person above into the Astor House for our next entry into this series.