1920s-1930s
After having changed its name from the Syrian Protestant College to the American University of Beirut, AUB witnessed times of prosperity and growth with an expanding and a more diverse study body from all over the Arab world, a richer span of programs being offered, and a general atmosphere of post-war resilience and abundance. It was also a time when the French administration was entrenching its presence in the region. In the picture, we see Henry de Jouvenel, French High Commissioner in Syria and Lebanon between December 23, 1925 and June 26, 1926 on a visit to AUB on January 25, 1926. De Jouvenel was a member of the French Senate and was appointed several times as Minister of Public Instruction. He was interested in the improvement of education in Syria and Greater Lebanon. During his visit to the University, he was accompanied by his military aide-de-camp, the chief of his cabinet, and M. Louis Regey, Delegue pour l'Instruction Publique. They drove across the hockey field and past the Observatory. He visited the School of Dentistry, West Hall, the Hospital as well as the Preparatory School.
Familiar faces strode the streets surrounding AUB signaling the resumption of ‘normal’ life, after Lebanon had lost about one third of its population to famine and war, during the Great War. One of these familiar faces was Hassan the candy man, who has a song written in his honor, whose presence opposite to Main Gate became a marker of the place. The photo shows from left to right: Mr. Asad Rustum, Instructor in History; Mr. Fred Hinkhouse, an American Instructor in Geography and English in the Preparatory School; Abu Su'ud, an Egyptian Senior in the Medical Department, the recognized leader of the .Moslem students; an unknown boy; Hassan, the one and only; and a student from the Preparatory Department.
The streets were also frequented with families of students, residents of the Ras Beirut Area, and street vendors selling mouneh products. Everyone seemed intrigued by the University, its mission, campus, buildings, hospital, students and Faculty.
The Beirut tramway ran adjacent to the University, infusing the neighborhood with vitality, services, convenience, flocks of people as well as the excitement of departures and arrivals. That, coupled with the traffic going in and out of Main Gate, and the buzz of street vendors and visitors, all contributed to making the street opposite the Main Gate an ideal spot for people- watching; a place to observe the city’s dynamics in its most immediate and crude sense, and sense the pulse of the University and the city.
What’s a college street without café life, and the buzz of students, administrators and teachers pushing through? The "Zahrat el Chark" (Flower of the Orient) restaurant sat opposite the University's Gate and was a popular rendezvous spot for the students. Many movements formative of the years to come would be discussed, pondered upon and debated at many of these cafes, most noteworthy of which is perhaps Faisal's restaurant, a birth place for many intellectual, political and popular movements, ideas, and revolts.