Ezra Mansion

To quote from CHINA RACES:
"They all lived palatially...in compradoric splendor, which was considered normal, [or] spurned the compradoric, moving instead into the phantasmagoric. The Sassoons had an oak-paneled mock-Tudor dining hall complete with musicians' gallery. The Ezra family lived in Grand Trianon style, with Louis XV furniture throughout, a ballroom for 150 dancers, a music room to seat an audience of 80 in comfort, and elegantly designed French windows giving out on to 25 acres of garden."The Ezra mansion, pictured above, is now part of a complex which houses the People's Armed Police. 

Marble Hall

"marble Hall" was the home of one of Shanghai's most famous Sephardi Jewish families, the kadoories. Along with their coreligionists, the Sassoons, the Ezras and the Hardoons, they controlled a considerable portion of the foreign wealth of Shanghai, much of which consisted of choice property holdings which they leased out. This stately mansion took from 1918 to 1924 to complete and was by no means unique in its splendor. 

A story that keeps surfacing is that the kadoories had in mind a far simpler house when they gave the architect a free hand and left the country for several years' travel. When they returned they supposedly were horrified to see that a palatial structure had arisen, and they ascertained that the architect was a drunkard with delusions of grandeur, which he exercised in the building of this marble mansion.

The daughter of that architect, however, debunks the whole story: her father was not a drunkard and the drawings would certainly have been approved by some kadoorie family member before the work started. She further states that in fact the kadoorie family was quite pleased with the final result when they returned from their travels. Whatever the real story, this magnificent mansion is now the municipally-owned "Children's Palace", a showplace in Shanghai and a regular stop on all tourist itineraries. 

The Gubbay House

Not every Jewish merchant's home was a palace. This small jewel of a house in the former French Concession was the residence of a collateral line of the Sassoon family, the Gubbays, Although much more modest than the other residences pictured here, it is certainly far cozier and more appealing. (Note the smiling face peering out from the upper story facade.)

The house really stands out now from its drab surroundings; it was recently painted a brilliant peach color. With utilitarian buildings now added on, it serves as a hospital.

The Sassoon villa

Sir victor Sassoon owned the Cathay Hotel, located in the Sassoon House on the Bund, where he had a penthouse. He preferred however to do his entertaining at his country villa near the golf course on Hungjao Road. This was in the style of an English manor house, half-timbered with a fireplace large enough to roast an ox.. There was also a musician’s gallery under the beamed ceiling in the drawing room, designed to look like the Great Hall of a medieval castle. Despite the feudal trappings, the house is actually modest  in size, with only two small bedrooms-rumored to be because Sir Victor wanted to stave off overnight guests.

The servants’ quarters were over the stables, which connected to the back of the house, facing on a courtyard with a well in the middle. Set in several acres of grounds, the villa is surrounded by luxuriant planting, including trees imported from Europe. It also features a small lake, overlooked by a Chinese pavilion, and a meandering path which crosses many small hump-back bridges.

An ultra-modern hotel has been built on the grounds, which are visited primarily by hotel guests, which are visited primarily by hotel guests- and expatriates who have discovered the side gate, sometimes left open. As parts of the grounds are now occupied by the Shanghai Zoo, visitors strolling through the garden are occasionally startled to hear the trumpeting of elephants or the roar of lions.