A former Catholic seminary in Xujiahui that later housed Xuhui District government offices has been restored to its former Gothic grandeur and opened to the public as an historic site.

The Xuhui Catholic Major Seminary was built in 1929 as a school to train local clergy. In the 1950s, its religious use ended and it was converted into offices. It was listed as a protected historic building by the Shanghai government in 2014.

Xuhui is home to many of Shanghai’s most historic buildings, and the district plans to refurbish many and open them to the public, said Wang Hongzhou, deputy district governor.

The ground floor of the old four-story seminary was renovated and is now open. Work on the upper stories is still underway.

The brick and concrete structure, which covers 3,000 square meters, retains many of the interior decoration from its seminary years. The pointed-arch windows have been well-preserved, said Shen Xiaoming, the chief designer for the renovation work. Chandeliers grace the rooms.

Local residents will be allowed to hold wedding ceremonies in the main hall of the building.

Engineers used historic data and original design sketches to render the facelift as authentic as possible, Shen said. Structural details, including windows and doors, were rebuilt completely according to the blueprints.

The original hexagonal mosaic floor tiles from the seminary have been restored. They were protected by a layer of concrete that has now been removed, Shen said.

Visitors enter the historic building from the northern entrance. Volunteers are on hand to give walking tours, explaining the décor and the history.

“A British visitor once told us that the building inside looked a bit like Buckingham Palace,” one of the volunteers said.

The Xuhui District government has mounted a photo exhibition on the ground floor, with 315 photos tracing the development of the Xujiahui area. One of the photos shows tens of thousands of people gathered outdoors for the countdown to the new century on December 31, 1999.

The historic building is open to public on weekends and holidays between 9am and 4pm. On weekdays, it receives only group visitors by reservation.

Former home of playwright

Among other Xuhui renovated historic sites are the former homes of playwright Ke Ling and cartoonist Zhang Leping. Both have reopened to the public as museums.

Ke, author of works such as “The Night Inn” and “Corrosion,” lived in a house at 147 Fuxing Road West from 1959 until his death in 2000. The district government began renovation on the house in 2014.

The site features a Hall of Letters where 700 pieces of correspondence written by Ke to friends around China have been collected for viewing. Many of the friends were celebrities of that era, said Song Haojie, who works for the Hunan Road sub-district government and is in charge of historic renovations in the area. The letters, along with manuscripts of 20 of Ke’s works, were donated to the museum by the playwright’s family and friends.

“The original manuscripts reveal the thoughts and writing process of Ke, and they are invaluable to scholars of modern Chinese literature,” said Song.

The bedroom and study have been restored to reflect how they looked when Ke lived there. A piece of paper on a table, alongside an old pen and reading glasses, evoke images of the playwright at work. An old-style square table sits in the kitchen, covered with a plastic tablecloth reminiscent of that era.

“The furniture and arrangement are exactly the same as when Ke and his wife lived there,” said Ke’s nephew, Zhu Xin.

Two blocks away is the home where cartoonist Zhang Leping lived for more than 40 years.

In 1935, Zhang created the beloved character of San Mao, who became the centerpiece of one of the world’s longest-running cartoon strips. Zhang said the character was inspired by local children he saw living a life of misery during the war against Japan.

The first floor of the two-story house at 3 Wuyuan Road has been transformed into an exhibition area, while the upper rooms reflect life as Zhang lived it between 1950 and 1992.

“The exhibition room displays the four major periods of Zhang’s career: his childhood, his experiences during the war, the creation of San Mao and his life with children,” said Song.

Pages from the cartoon series are printed along the walls of the corridor leading into the house. Full versions of these works have been reproduced electronically for visitors to view in the exhibition hall.

The display floor features more than 200 items belonging to Zhang, along with 52 caricatures the artist drew. Many original manuscripts of San Mao are on display for the first time.

Visitors are allowed for the first time to view the former study, bedroom and living room in Zhang’s home.

“We want visitors feel the living atmosphere of the master,” Song said, adding that more exhibits will be added in due course.

More historic buildings

Among the other historic buildings that will be opened to the public this year are the homes of former playwright Xia Yan and translator Cao Ying, and a former Masonic building.

In addition, the Blackstone Apartments building on Fuxing Road will reopen as a venue for orchestral performances.

It will be one of the most eye-catching of historic structures when it reopens as a record museum later this year, Wang said.

The three-story building, known as the Small Red Mansion by locals, is in Xujiahui Park. It was formerly Shanghai’s first recording studio. It first opened around 1915 as the offices of the Electric and Musical Industries Ltd, the first recording company in China.

In its heyday, the studio had more than 1,500 workers. In 1952, it became a recording studio for China Record Corp, the country’s own oldest record label. The ground floor of the building was used for recording while the second floor housed the editing rooms.

Composer Xian Xinghai, popular singer Zhou Xuan, Shanghai film star Hu Die and Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang once worked in the building. Many contemporary pop singers and film stars, including Taiwan singer Lo Tayu and actress Gong Li, also recorded songs there.

The building was converted into a restaurant in 2002 after the company was relocated to make way for the park.