Station Hotel, TST [c.1902-1936]

Please add "dominicans' keyword

The comments are from a newsletter of the royal Asiatic Society. I can't get the full view online but it's explaining about the Dominicans and their property and who ran it. Do a Google Books search with the words Dominican and Uschmann.

Though it calls itself a Hotel, many on the jury lists lived there - so it was both a hotel and boarding house comma just like kingsclere Hotel and even the peak Hotel

Thanks for the extra info. I found the quoted text came from Carl Smith's "The German speaking community in Hong Kong 1846-1918". (Old RAS journal articles can be viewed online at http://hkjo.lib.hku.hk/exhibits/show/hkjo/home)

Here's the full paragraph:

Mr. Reichmann must have lost his case against Mrs. Uschmann as from 1911 to 1914 R.A. Uschmann was the licensee of the Station Hotel at Nos. 11 and 13 Nathan Road. The hotel was closed during the war but in November 1919 Mrs. Louisa Jane Stewart Brown applied for a spirit licence. In 1921 her name is replaced by Mrs. A.B. Sanderson Smith. A summary of the history of the Station Hotel was published in the South China Morning Post at the time of its closure in 1931. The proprietors Mr. and Mrs. Sanderson Smith closed it at the end of March after it had been in existence some twenty years. Two houses on Nathan Road were occupied as residences when purchased by the Procurator of the Dominican Mission in 1908. In the following year Mrs. Uschmann established a boarding house. Then an annex in the rear facing Hankow Road was purchased by the Dominicans. Mr. J. Sanderson Smith arrived in Hong Kong in 1921 and married Mrs. Uschmann In my opinion the account is incorrect in stating he married Mrs. Uschmann. I conclude from the evidence presented above that he married Miss Petersen, the daughter of Mrs. Uschmann.

It's not yet clear whether the Dominican Mission sold or rented the buildings to Mr & Mrs Uschmann.

Mrs. Uschmann had been a hotel keeper on Hong Kong side.  The court case was where her former hotel sued her for competing in violation of their contract. She claimed that she was just being a good wife assisting her new husband, who was the real hotel keeper. She won. 

HK Telegraph 22 November 1904

A new hotel is to be erected on Kowloon Inland Lot No. 402 that will front Robinson Road (today's Nathan Road). The design shows a three-storied building in the front wing and a four-storied to the north and south wings. Each wing has wide verandahs to permit every room having verandah accommodation. The front wing is surmounted with towers and the facade will have an elegant appearance. Eight European shops will be erected on the opposite side of Robinson Road, so that in all probability this part of Robinson Road will be the business centre of the future.

The hotel will contain a public bar and billiard roon, private bar and billiard room, office, 2 dining rooms and 44 large airy, well-ventilated rooms suitable for bedrooms, parlours etc. There will be ample bathrooms and lavatory accommodation and up-to-date sanitary appliances. Electric passenger and food lifts, electric lighting and bells as well as gas lighting will be installed. The hotel will be under European management.

(Judging from the jury lists, it appears there is a large gap in time when the hotel came into being.)

I am presently trying hard to encipher a number of handwritten Carl Smith Cards about the Station Hotel and my Great-Grandmother Mary Uschmann. The information should close the gap between 1904 and 1911.

Susann

I found the following information on a Carl Smith Card about the Station Hotel:

"Chan Hewan, Superintendent of China Merchants Steam Navigation Co. sometime in 1904 conceived the idea of buildung a large hotel in Kowloon to be called the Station. To be in most modern style and with every modern conveniences in anticipation of railway shortly to be completed. He had contract for elaborate modern hotel. Chan Hewan cancelled plans and entered new contract for altering existing houses on site to make it suitable for a high class hotel. 1906 Chan Hewan committed suicide. Kowloon IL5 Station Hotel finished"

SCMP  April 23, 1931: "Public auction today - Closes 20 years business, conducted by Mr. and Mrs. J. Sanderson Smith, ceased towards end of March, when they left colony. With demolition of Rose Terrace and other old houses in Kowloon Station Hotel is probably the oldest at present in Peninsula. Known that 2 houses fronting on Nathan Road were occupied as private residences when they were purchased by dominican mission in 1908. In 1909 Mrs. Uschmann a local resident established a boarding house in the premises for 2 years when the present annex in the rear, facing Hankow Road, was acquired by dominican mission and added to establishment."

Carl Smith Card:

"1931, August 12, SCMP - picture - Station Hotel, Nathan Road, just before demolition began, 40 years. Only part to be pulled down, more recent four storey structure at rear to be renovated and with an entrance to Lock Road to be turned into flats. Nathan Road frontage to have a row of single storey flats. Site on Crown Lease May 1, 1900 by Henry James Holmes and Fung Wa-chuen, wo sold it in 1904 to Chan Hewan. Before close of 19th century Mr. Home had established there a fine garden and a small shack where he spent week ends. - Present old hotel building was built early 19th century and was first used as a residence, then Chan Hewan leased it to the Station Hotel Co. Ltd. in 1905. In 1907 bought by Spanish Dominican Mission, who still own it. Station Hotel closed down 1925 until re-opened as Boarding House in 1931." 

From November 1921 until November 1926, Annie Bertha Sanderson Smith held the license for the Station Hotel. She was the youngest daughter of my Great-Grandfather Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Petersen and his wife Mary Petersen born Towamoy.

moddsey,

may I take a copy of the photographs of the Station Hotel? I only have photographs showing part of the hotel like the garden with a bit of the building in the background. I would be very grateful.

Kind regards, Susann

Sure no problems. Please contact the webmaster. Cheers!

Many thanks!

My apologies, but I have mistaken one of the cards. Annie Bertha Sanderson Smith held the license until November 1930, not until 1926. In 1931 she was not listed.

Marjorie Bird Angus came to Hong Kong in 1924/25, in her book Bamboo Connection she says of the hotel situation in Tsim Sha Tsui in those days,

“There were only three hotels in Kowloon when I first arrived in 1924; the Kowloon Hotel on the corner of Middle Road and Hankow Road; the Station Hotel on the corner of Nathan Road and Haiphong Road (it had big trees in front and a verandah where one could sit and look out on to Nathan Road); and the Palace Hotel (which was behind the Station Hotel lower down in Haiphong Road".

August 1936 Typhoon. The work of demolition of the Station Hotel, Nathan Road  which has been in progress for some days, was considerably accelerated by the typhoon, the building having now completely collapsed. China Mail 17 August 1936 refers.

Timeline

a) China Mail 1 February 1911

An application from Jesse Rees Lee for a publican's licence to sell by retail intoxicating liquors on the premises, Nos.  11 & 13 Nathan Road, Kowloon, under the sign of "The Station Hotel" was granted by the Licensing Board. During the determination process, the Board heard that a previous application for the same licence had been approved but the licence had not been taken out as the applicant had recently passed away. 

b) Hong Kong Telegraph 1 March 1911

The Station Hotel, Kowloon is to be opened tonight. The Hotel has 20 bedrooms and is under the management of Mr. Lee.