Early SPC/AUB American Community

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Locations of Anglo -Americans Houses in Ras Beirut

Maria B. Abunnasr. (2013) The Making of Ras Beirut: A Landscape of Memory for Narratives of Exceptionalism.

The early American community associated with the Syrian Protestant College (SPC), later the American University of Beirut (AUB), initially settled in modest rented homes in the Zuqāq al-Blāṭ quarter, near the College’s original location. As the institution expanded and the new campus in Ras Beirut began to take shape after 1873, faculty families—comprising Anglo-American missionaries, educators, and physicians—gradually relocated to purpose-built residences overlooking the sea. They began renting or constructing homes scattered across the surrounding neighborhood, transforming what had been a semi-rural area of orchards and fields into a growing expatriate enclave. Among these, the Marquand House (1879) stood out as a prominent and elegant residence, symbolizing the shift from temporary urban lodgings to a more permanent and cohesive academic community in Ras Beirut.

Many of these residences were situated along Bliss, Clemenceau, and Sidani Streets, and the older coastal road, reflecting the outward movement of the College community from Zuqāq al-Blāṭ to Ras Beirut. Families such as the Posts, Wards, Blisses, Moores, and Halls lived in modest stone houses or expanded villas overlooking the Mediterranean. Others rented existing village homes near Ras Beirut’s small lanes, springs, and fields. By the early twentieth century, these households formed a recognizable network of Anglo-American presence, marked by shared institutional ties, proximity to the campus, and daily interaction with local inhabitants of the Ras Beirut village.

Scattered across the neighborhood, these homes illustrate how the College’s expansion reshaped the local landscape. Residences mainly clustered along the paths connecting the campus with nearby areas. By settling in Ras Beirut, the Anglo-American community became an integral part of the district’s multicultural fabric, living alongside Muslim, Orthodox, Protestant, and local Ras Beiruti families in a quarter that would grow into one of Beirut’s defining urban spaces.