Jerusalem Hotel

The Hotel Jerusalem was the first ever luxury hotel outside of old Jaffa. It operated between the years 1870 and 1940 and had 57 rooms that occupied 1899 square meters. It was located on Rehov Auerbach #6 in the historic American Colony that soon became known also as the German Colony. The hotel is an important landmark in the development of Jaffa in the second half of the 19th century by being the first hotel outside of Jaffa’s city walls. Currently the building is part of the top-end Drisco Hotel.

History

American colony

In 1866, 156 Americans from Maine docked in Jaffa. They were Protestant Evangelicals (Christian Restorationism) who were primarily carpenters and farmers. They were led by George J. Adams, a charismatic reverend who had founded the Church of the Messiahs several years earlier in Maine. They believed that hard work and developing ties with the local Jews would hasten the Messiah's arrival.

The group purchased a small plot of land to the North of Jaffa and built several wooden structures with pre-fabricated pieces that they had brought with them from America.

Among this first group of American colonists there were two brothers, John and George Drisco who wanted to turn the colony into the first destination for the pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem.

They started by buying a plot and then another from George J. Adams and begin building the hotel in early 1866 with the expectancy to be open for welcoming the first pilgrims of Easter 1867, however they only completed construction by April, thus missing the "pilgrim season" they had so heavily counted on. When they finally opened the hotel, they named it Le Grand Hotel, but their buoyancy is already starting to show cracks.

Disease, the climate, the insecure and arbitrary treatment by the Ottoman authorities, make many of the colonists remigrate to Maine.

German colony

As their finances dwindle and their spirit cracks, the Drisco brothers are forced to sell to a German missionary by the name of Peter Martin Metzler [de] in order to afford travel fare back to Maine. Metzler bought the hotel and turned it into a mission for Swiss-German pilgrims.

On 5 March 1869 Metzler sold the hotel and all its property to the leaders of the

] many of whom sympathised with Nazis or even were actual active Nazi members.

Recent history

This article needs to be updated. Please help update this section to reflect recent events or newly available information. (December 2018)

In the 2010s the building underwent heavy reconstruction, with the purpose of turning it by 2017 into a 50-room luxury suite hotel. The developers have named it the Drisco Hotel, after the two brothers who had raised the original building, John and George Drisco. The Drisco Hotel will also include the historic Norton House that is located on 4 Auerbach St.

^[7][8]

References

1. ISBN 965-7109-03-5
2. ^ Thomas Cook Ltd; Cook Thomas and son, ltd (1876). Cook's Tourists' Handbook for Palestine and Syria. T. Cook & Son. pp. 67–.
3. ^ Harry Alverson Franck (1928). The fringe of the Moslem world: being the tale of a random journey by land from Cairo to Constantinople ... Grosset & Dunlap. p. 111.
4. ISBN 978-1-317-67210-4
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5. ^
   ISBN 3-17-016788-X
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6. ISBN 0-8143-2523-8
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7. ISBN 0-8309-0315-1^{[page needed}
   ]
8. ISBN 1-903900-62-X^{[page needed}
   ]

32°03′25″N 34°45′45″E / 32.0569°N 34.7625°E / 32.0569; 34.7625