![generally a really private hotel/villa, but we were able to wander around the property that afternoon when i took this. also, the windows were all shuttered, so i don’t know if it’s just temporarily closed or what.
abovetheseafilm:
[The Marshall House] could be any place in France. What makes it unique is that it is in Shanghai. You could not get more French than its former owners, Comte Maurice Frederic Armand du Pac de Marsoulies and his wife, Comtesse Virginie Blanche, always known as Ginette (and later as ‘The Merry Widow”). The Compte was a French civil servant who retired and moved to Shanghai in 1918, where he started a new career as an international lawyer. He prospered, but his career came to an abrupt end in 1933, when he was not yet sixty years old. Shortly after taking part in the Paris-Peking Citroen Rally, he was invited, along with several other French officials, to dine with the boss of Shanghai’s Green Gang, the infamous Du Yuesheng.
This was during a period when there was a turf war over the distribution and sale of opium and “Papa” Du was threatened by the French authorities with the loss of what had been his virtual monopoly. In any event, the dinner was sumptuous and the event all cordiality but, alas, within three weeks, three of the diners were dead. All were French, and they included the Comte.
Rumors ran rampant as all three men had died sequentially of “a sudden illness.” There was talk of prof0t-sharing deals gone awry and of corruption in high places (ultimately proven to be more than just talk). The Comte’s widow Ginette was left with a rather sizable sum of money and a large house, which she used to entertain and to live well. Thus she earned her sobriquet, probably from the envious, “The Merry Widow.”
Ginette sold the house and all its contents in 1940 to a Chinese, who later rented it to the Japanese. After the war, General Wedemeyer of the US Army rented it and General George Marshall stayed there while trying to broker *unsuccessfully) a truce between the Nationalists and the Communists. The house became known, at least to the English-speaking, as the Marshall House.
The mansion is now the Tai Yuan Guest House, named after the street on which it stands (the former Route Delastre).
from the book Frenchtown Shanghai](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4322i4Lh51rujj77o1_1280.jpg)
generally a really private hotel/villa, but we were able to wander around the property that afternoon when i took this. also, the windows were all shuttered, so i don’t know if it’s just temporarily closed or what.
[The Marshall House] could be any place in France. What makes it unique is that it is in Shanghai. You could not get more French than its former owners, Comte Maurice Frederic Armand du Pac de Marsoulies and his wife, Comtesse Virginie Blanche, always known as Ginette (and later as ‘The Merry Widow”). The Compte was a French civil servant who retired and moved to Shanghai in 1918, where he started a new career as an international lawyer. He prospered, but his career came to an abrupt end in 1933, when he was not yet sixty years old. Shortly after taking part in the Paris-Peking Citroen Rally, he was invited, along with several other French officials, to dine with the boss of Shanghai’s Green Gang, the infamous Du Yuesheng.This was during a period when there was a turf war over the distribution and sale of opium and “Papa” Du was threatened by the French authorities with the loss of what had been his virtual monopoly. In any event, the dinner was sumptuous and the event all cordiality but, alas, within three weeks, three of the diners were dead. All were French, and they included the Comte.Rumors ran rampant as all three men had died sequentially of “a sudden illness.” There was talk of prof0t-sharing deals gone awry and of corruption in high places (ultimately proven to be more than just talk). The Comte’s widow Ginette was left with a rather sizable sum of money and a large house, which she used to entertain and to live well. Thus she earned her sobriquet, probably from the envious, “The Merry Widow.”Ginette sold the house and all its contents in 1940 to a Chinese, who later rented it to the Japanese. After the war, General Wedemeyer of the US Army rented it and General George Marshall stayed there while trying to broker *unsuccessfully) a truce between the Nationalists and the Communists. The house became known, at least to the English-speaking, as the Marshall House.The mansion is now the Tai Yuan Guest House, named after the street on which it stands (the former Route Delastre).from the book Frenchtown Shanghai
