Signese

The flowers are pretty.

answear:

1,this building is in shanghai.

2,the translation is :Shanghai old cadre hostel(hotel). so it is a inn for the old cadres.

3,there is nothing wrong with the writings, but just the calligraphy is poor. the person who made this calligraphy is 魏文伯， he was a veteran party member, who contributed whole his life for the chinese revolution. was the university President of 华东政法大学 （the old St.John university Shanghai）, was a very important figure for the legal field of the early stage of the PRC. obviously he was not so good in doing calligraphy. but surly more then qualified for the title :'old cadre'.

since he died in the year 1987, i believe this calligraphy does have some age, but i am not so sure about if the building is as old as the calligraphy, since one can simply build a new building and use the old calligraphy for the old build on it.

are those 白玉兰 flowers?

there is nothing wrong with the writings

Are you sure? Maybe it's just the calligraphy style, but to me it looks like one of the characters is missing a piece.

are those 白玉兰 flowers?

Yes.

Are you sure? Maybe it's just the calligraphy style, but to me it looks like one of the characters is missing a piece.

If you are talking about 招, I think 異體字 are generally accepted in calligraphy.

Yes, that was it. I assumed a piece had just fallen off.

Is the last character 所? That's the only word I know that makes sense (招待所), but I have a hard time recognizing it.

Is the last character 所? That's the only word I know that makes sense (招待所), but I have a hard time recognizing it.

yes it is 所，but it is again 异体字, this style of 所 often happen to old people, my mom knows how to write that 所, but my father doesn't, so it is really not very popular way of writing 所, even when there are many people who knows how. in fact it is more like an fast writing of un-complete 所，so nowadays it is a '错别字'......