H.E Morriss owned the NORTH CHINA DAILY NEWS, with its offices in a tall building on the Bund called“ The Old Lady of the Bund". The Morriss Estate, which occupied nearly a square block on Avenue Pere Robert (now Ruijin Er Lu), was across from the Canidrome dogracing track. Mr. Morriss raised greyhounds and had access to the track through a door cut in the back wall of the garden.

On the grounds were three houses set amidst luscious lawns and imported trees. The most elegant is the one pictured here, which featured a walk-in silver vault in the dining room and a double cantilevered staircase with a cast-iron screen with flowers and dogs on the second floor landing.

A second house to the rear of the grounds featured a stained glass tryptich of an exotic jungle scene, pictured here. The story is that the last remaining Morriss son, a bachelor, did not leave Shanghai until after the arrival of the communists. When he died a few years later in the gatehouse of the estate, all his personal effects were reputedly put on display as the "plunder" of a capitalist. That he did not foresee this sorry end seems fairly certain: the date on the opulent stained glass windows is 1950, indicating that they were installed after the "liberation” of Shanghai by the communists.

After 1950 the estate became a government guesthouse and entertained many high-ranking communist leaders. It is still a guesthouse and one can stroll the grounds, banquet in the main house or dine casually in the old carriage house.