The house of Schumacher, the architect of the German colony in Haifa • Dr. David Bar On

(live here with story building) The house next to the Oliphant House at 12 Ben Gurion Boulevard (written about in last week's section - see link at the bottom of the article) is the Schumacher House.

"Try the light of your face upon us, O Lord"

Beit Schumacher was built in 1870 by Jacob Schumacher, a member of the Templar movement, who came to Haifa from the USA, after he had previously immigrated to Haifa from Germany.

The house is a two-story building, built of stone. It is designed in a Templar style characterized by a combination of Western European elements, such as a prominent balcony in the front, a tiled roof, a gable - with local oriental features such as arched openings.

Also in this house, as in the other houses of the German colony, a verse from the Psalms in the German language is engraved above the entrance. Here the verse is engraved: "Try upon us the light of your face, O Lord" (Psalms 4:7).

Jacob Schumacher

Jacob Schumacher, being a stone mason and architect, was a key partner in the planning of the German colony. As such, he left his mark on the construction style of the houses of the colony and formulated the characteristics of the Templar style, as it is expressed in his own house.

The house became a consulate

In 1872 he was appointed Schumacher to the US consul in Haifa and northern Israel and his house actually became the US consulate. Let's recall that in 1882, Lawrence Oliphant stayed at his house, and then purchased the house next door, which later became known as the "Oliphant House".

After the death of Jacob Schumacher in 1891, the post of US consul was inherited by his son, Gottlieb Schumacher. As an archaeologist, c. Schumacher made a very significant contribution to the study of Israel's history by carrying out the first excavations at Tel Megiddo. As the engineer of the Acre region of the Ottoman Empire, Gottlieb Schumacher planned the northern route of the Hijaz railway that connected Damascus, Syria, through the Jezreel Valley, with al-Madinah in Saudi Arabia.

About the Oliphant house, next to the Schumacher house - in the link:

Note: Dear readers, the articles in this section are based on open information published in sources such as Wikipedia and other websites and may include various historical inaccuracies arising from the aforementioned sources.