Sir Elly Kadoorie's Mansion

Sir Elly Kadoorie's Mansion

Sir Elly Kadoorie's Mansion is a protected cultural heritage site of Shanghai.

Sir Elly Kadoorie's Mansion, commonly known as the Marble Palace, is located at No. 64 Yan’an West Road, Jing’an District, Shanghai, and currently houses the China Welfare Institute Children’s Palace. Constructed in 1924, it covers an area of 14,000 square meters with a floor space of 4,700 square meters. It was once the private residence of Sir Elly Silas Kadoorie, a British Jewish tycoon, founder of Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Limited, and the Peninsula Hotel. The entire building was constructed using marble as the primary material, hence earning the nickname “Marble Palace.”

The Kadoorie Family

Sir Elly Kadoorie was a British Jewish tycoon who initially worked with Shanghai real estate magnate Silas Aaron Hardoon and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. In the late 19th century, he began establishing businesses in Shanghai and Hong Kong across various sectors and also engaged in numerous philanthropic activities, such as founding Shanghai Yucai Middle School and Shanghai First Tuberculosis Hospital. As a result, in 1925, King George V of the United Kingdom awarded him a knighthood, Second Class. In the 1930s, his sons Lawrence Kadoorie and Horace Kadoorie began assisting in expanding the family business, making the Kadoorie family one of the prominent Jewish business conglomerates in Shanghai, alongside the Sassoons and Hardoons. After 1949, their main operations were relocated to Hong Kong.

Construction of the Mansion

In 1919, the mansion on Huangpi South Road owned by Elly Kadoorie caught fire. His wife, Mocatta, tragically lost her life while trying to rescue a governess trapped inside the burning house. With their original residence destroyed—and to avoid being reminded of the tragedy—Kadoorie and his two sons moved to London. He entrusted his architect friend, Lahan Brown, with the construction of their new home. The new mansion was to be built on what was then called Daxi Road, now Yan’an West Road. Although Lahan Brown was an architect, due to his alcoholism, he did not take charge of the design and instead delegated it to architect J. J. Shannon of the Palmer & Turner firm, taking no further part in the construction process.

In 1924, after five years of construction, the new mansion was completed, and Kadoorie returned to Shanghai. Upon his arrival, he found “a palace-like building and a completely drunk Brown lying in the hospital.” Moreover, maintaining the mansion required nearly thirty to forty servants daily. Even more astonishing to him was the exorbitant cost of the design and construction—the entire mansion had cost one million taels of silver. At the time, one million taels could buy 50 million kilograms of rice, enough to feed 140,000 people for a year. Despite the high cost, Kadoorie was quite satisfied with the mansion’s beautiful architecture and exquisite design.

Changes to the Mansion

With the rise of Nazi Germany’s racism, a large number of Jewish refugees fled Europe. Since many countries feared the power of Nazi Germany, but Shanghai was a free port without visa restrictions, it became a destination for many Jewish refugees. In 1938, there was even a large wave of immigration. As fellow Jews, the Kadoorie family also devoted themselves to refugee relief efforts. Sir Elly Kadoorie’s son, Horace Kadoorie, took the lead in organizing relief meetings. Later, all Jewish organizations and social relief groups in Shanghai held meetings here and decided to form the “Shanghai Committee for the Assistance of European Refugees,” taking unified action to help Jewish refugees. Sir Elly Kadoorie himself donated a large sum of money and founded the Shanghai Jewish Youth Association School, specifically to accommodate Jewish children from Europe.

On December 8, 1941, the Pacific War broke out. At that time, the Kadoorie family was vacationing in Hong Kong, while the Shanghai mansion was managed by Horace Kadoorie. On that day, the Japanese army occupied the Shanghai International Settlement and Hong Kong, and all members of the Kadoorie family were detained in concentration camps. The mansion was confiscated by the Japanese. Because of Sir Elly Kadoorie’s advanced age, he was allowed by the Japanese to return to the Marble Palace but was confined to the former servants’ quarters under house arrest, although Horace was permitted to look after him daily. In 1944, Sir Elly Kadoorie passed away in the mansion. In 1945, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, a U.S. advance team led by Major Showell landed in Shanghai and contacted the Kadoorie brothers through the Swiss Consulate General in Shanghai, hoping to temporarily use the Kadoorie Mansion for office purposes. On the day the war ended, the Kadoorie brothers turned on all the lights in the mansion to celebrate the end of the war.

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the Kadoorie Mansion became a gathering place for servicemen from the U.S., Australia, Britain, and other countries, as well as a venue for numerous charitable events in Shanghai. The China Welfare Foundation (the predecessor of the China Welfare Institute), led by Soong Ching Ling, wife of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, held many charitable events here, such as garden parties, charity balls, and fundraising sales. In the late 1940s, the Kadoorie family moved from Shanghai to Hong Kong. In 1953, with the consent of the Kadoorie family, Soong Ching Ling established the China Welfare Institute Children’s Palace—the earliest children’s palace in China—on June 1, International Children’s Day, in the Kadoorie Mansion. She also invited Mao Zedong to inscribe the name of the children’s palace.

In 1989, the Kadoorie Mansion was designated as an outstanding historical building of Shanghai.