Former Site of the Chongsi Building at Xu Hui Middle School

Former Site of the Chongsi Building at Xu Hui Middle School

The former site of the Chongsi Building at Xu Hui Middle School is a protected cultural heritage site of Shanghai Municipality.

The former site of the Chongsi Building at Xu Hui Middle School is located at No. 50 Hongqiao Road. The school, now known as Xu Hui Middle School (originally Xu Hui Public School), was founded in 1850 and has a history of one and a half centuries. It is the earliest Western-style school established by the Catholic Church in Shanghai and one of the first schools in China to adopt a Western educational model. Its founding almost coincided with the opening of Shanghai as a port, and it can be said to hold a unique place in the history of modern education in Shanghai and even China. Founded in 1850 by Jesuit missionary Father Nicolas Massa, it was initially called Saint Ignatius Public School and admitted children from impoverished Chinese families. After the establishment of the Republic of China, the school was divided into middle and primary levels according to the new Chinese educational system, and a high school department was added in 1930. In 1932, it was renamed Xu Hui Public School.

The Chongsi Building was first conceived in 1915 as part of a plan to construct new school facilities. At that time, Belgian priest and architect De Smet (with the Chinese surname Ye) designed the preliminary sketches and supervised the construction. The first foundation stone was laid on January 8, 1917, with Shen Baochang, the magistrate of Shanghai County during the Qing Dynasty, attending the ceremony. The building was completed on June 20, 1918, and its inauguration was attended by many notable figures in Shanghai, including General Lu Yongxiang, the garrison commander of the Shanghai-Suzhou region. It was then referred to as the “New School Building.” In 1992, the then-principal Wang Jinsong renamed it the “Chongsi Building.” The Chongsi Building is a brick-and-wood structure with a pseudo-four-story design (three floors plus attic level), built in the French Renaissance architectural style. The roof features a Mansard-style design with slate tiles and French-style dormer windows. The entire façade emphasizes vertical lines with pilasters, and the central dormer forms a Baroque-style broken pediment. The building’s exterior is finished with exposed red brick walls, accented by red brick pilasters with capitals in the classic Corinthian order.