The Street Formerly Known As Wulumuqi Road
As Wulumuqi Road street signs were taken down in the wake of protests that began early Sunday morning, rumors were flying that the street name may be changed–again. Although most of the street signs do remain, it seems like a good time to take a look at the century-long history of this street, and the different names it’s gone by over the years.
The street we know today as Wulumuqi Road once had three different names and ran through both the former French Concession and the International Settlement. Laid out between 1918-1921, just after World War I, it was developed during the boom years between the wars, Shanghai’s Golden Age, when money was plentiful and Art Deco was all the rage. The name was changed to Wulumuqi Road after the Communist victory in 1949. Wulumuqi is the pinyin for Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and until the 1990s, the street was called Urumqi Road.
Wulumuqi South Road
Rue Dufour—now Wulumuqi South Road—was named for a young Shanghai resident, Frenchman Louis Alexandre Dufour. Sergeant Dufour, a graduate of the Shanghai Public School and employee of Standard Oil, was just 21 when he gave his life for France on the battlefields of Champagne.
Rue Dufour began life as quiet country road, which began at the Zhaojia Creek–today’s Zhaojiabang Road–with only farmhouses for company. Just one of these old farmhouses survives: the Xia family home, built in 1923, just a few years after the road was completed. The brothers who built the house were farmers, crossing the wooden bridges across the creek to work their land. Their granddaughter still lives here, but tells us that they must vacate the property by the end of 2022, as the area is slated for redevelopment.
The farmhouses were soon joined by impressive buildings. The American Masonic Lodge, constructed by the American Freemasons, is a streamlined modernist building designed by one of the masons, the Right Worshipful Brother Arthur Q. Adamson. When it was consecrated in 1928, a box with Masonic symbols was placed inside the cornerstone. No one’s saying if it’s still there or not … but we sure hope so! Even if not, the beautiful Gothic-inspired woodwork interior is consolation enough.
The American Masonic Lodge: before renovation (left), as it is today (top) and an original design on the rooftop (bottom, taken during renovation).
Just next door is the stunning Dufour Apartments (#176 Wulumuqi South Road). This classic Art Deco beauty is as cosmopolitan as Shanghai: a building with a French name, designed by the Russian architect W.A. Federoff for a Baghdadi Jewish developer, Jacob Isaiah Jacob. Pro tip: wait until someone opens the gate so that you can get inside and see the vibrantly colored tiles in the lobby.
Wulumuqi Middle Road
The road’s central section, where the protests took place and where street signs came down, is perhaps most familiar to expatriates: this is the home of hipster cafes, pastry shops, and the Avocado Lady, purveyor of international groceries. The Avocado Lady is part of a long tradition: back when the street was called Route Alfred Magy (named for another French Shanghai resident who was killed during the first World War), a lively food and vegetable market stood almost on the same spot.
Left: the Avocado Lady of Wulumuqi Lu. Right, top and bottom: Behind these Art Deco beauties was once Magy Lane, a lively lane neighborhood whose tragic end is recounted in the book Street of Eternal Happiness by Rob Schmitz.
Pop into the lane next to the indoor market to see the Chinese Art Deco Crystal Palace. Built in the 1940s for a wealthy Chinese hat merchant and his five squabbling wives, the house got its nickname thanks to his collection of crystal chandeliers and art objects. Today, it’s a private club.
The most iconic buildings on this stretch are the Art Deco pair that dominate the corner of Fuxing West Road (Route Boissezon) and Wulumuqi Middle Road: the Magy Apartments and the Boissezon (#26 Fuxing West Road), named for their respective streets. Both were designed by the firm of Leonard, Veyssyre & Kruze, the most prolific architects in the Concession. Indeed, Alexandre Leonard liked the Magy so much that he lived in the penthouse.
The Boissezon (left) and the Magy Apartments
Wulumuqi North Road
Huashan Road was the border between the former French Concession and the International Settlement, where Route Magy turned into Tifeng Road. Today, it’s where Wulumuqi Middle Road turns into Wulumuqi North Road. After World War II, Tifeng Road became Tihua Road, the former name for Urumqi (Wulumuqi), which would later inspire the name for the entire street.
Some of Shanghai’s wealthiest families lived on this stretch of Wulumuqi, people like the Kadoories, current owners of the Peninsula, who made their fortune in old Shanghai. Their home, Marble Hall–named for the quantities of marble used–was one of the grandest mansions in a city of grand mansions, with its own ballroom and expansive grounds. Today, it’s the Municipal Children’s Palace.
The former Kadoorie mansion, Marble Hall, now the Municipal Children’s Palace.
Across the street from the Kadoories is the home of a fellow Sephardic Jewish family, the Nissims. The Nissims began trading in Shanghai in the 19th century, and built a fortune in banking and real estate. Their mansion is rather neglected these days, but the grandeur is still there, albeit shabby. On the final stretch of this street, plane trees yield to willows, and Wulumuqi Road yields one final surprise: the Shanghai Free Christian Church, established by British missionaries and built in 1939.
Time will tell whether future generations will continue to call this street Wulumuqi Road. You can change the name, but you can’t change the fascinating, layered history of this century-old Shanghai street.
Historic Shanghai’s Wulumuqi Road walk covers the length of the street, and includes the history of these buildings, and many more.