The Mission House

The story

The Mission House stands at the corner of Ha-Avot and Trumpeldor streets in Beersheba. It was built in 1903 for a Muslim family, on the plot on which the tent of the first Turkish governor in the region, Ismail Kemal Bey, had previously stood, and it does not look like a Christian building. It is designed in the Turkish style, like the public buildings of the city: symmetrical construction, an entrance with three doors and a tiled roof. In 1911 an American mission group bought the building, and in 1921 a church with a bell tower was built beside it, and three classrooms were added to it. The place was run by a family from the United States, which was replaced from time to time by another family: the husband preached and taught, and the wife served as a teacher and a nurse. The mother of the household and her daughters ran an eye clinic in the building at low prices, which treated mainly residents of the area who had fallen ill with trachoma as a result of the sandstorms, and about thirty Christian children studied in the school at the place. Today the church building and the mission are not active, but they still belong to the mission organization, and they adjoin the offices of the vehicle workshop of the Israel Police in the city.

• Ottoman
• Communities
• British Mandate
• Education
• Beersheba