Beit Mainz in the center of Carmel: 7 years of closure

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Between the Panorama Hotel and the Nof Hotel, on Sderot Hanasi 103, there is a two-story building with a red tiled roof, known as the "Mainz House", in the past it was the site of the MILB club. The place has been closed for several years.

A brief history of the House of Mainz

The house was built at the beginning of the 20th century by members of the Templar sect in the "Carmelheim" neighborhood and served as a temporary residence for Pastor Martin Schneider's family, until their permanent home was completed on Hasnavar Street (now 130 Hatshebi Street). Today, the house is used as a boutique hotel.

Pastor Martin Schneider, who was a member of the Lutheran Church, came to Israel with the aim of establishing the Carmel Mission, which was intended to work among Jews and Muslims to convert them. In 1913, the Schneider family moved to their permanent home, and the temporary home became a center for missionary activity, hosting delegations and volunteers from Germany who came to the Carmel Mission.

Construction style - Mainz house

The house was built in an architectural style typical of Templar construction: simple building lines, natural building materials, plaster finish with a combination of wooden elements and a red tiled roof.

After the establishment of the state, the house passed to the Haifa Municipal Authority and was used as a public institution for various cultural activities.

Beit Mainz, Haifa
Beit Mainz, Haifa (illustration Dr. David Bar On)

Mainz house

The decision to turn the building into a public library stemmed from the relationship created between the municipality of Haifa and the municipality of Mainz in Germany, at the height of which in 1987 a "twin cities" alliance was signed between the two cities.
The library is designed to strengthen the cultural ties between them, through a significant section of German literature donated by the city of Mainz. As a result, the house was given the name "Mainz House". The building became an important community center for the Carmel population, especially for its German-speaking residents.

Later, in Beit Mainz, a branch of Mil. B We are a municipal corporation specializing in leisure, social and cultural activities for retirees. The corporation has 17 retiree clubs spread all over the city of Haifa, including Kiryat Haim.

The burning and decommissioning

In 2017, a fire broke out in the building and the library of Mainz House was partially burned. After this event, the municipality abandoned the building and left it inactive, without activity. The property was abandoned and neglected.

Two years later, in 2019, since the building was not restored and the club was still closed, residents appealed to the mayor of the city, Mrs. Kalish, with a request to restore the institution and return it to activity. 

Only a year later, in 2020, the residents responded that as part of the renovation of the property, the municipality is working to make it accessible, as required by the Accessibility Law. 

The pensioners' lobby in the city council demanded the resumption of activities of the MilB club as soon as possible, but the municipality refused to commit and offered to move the MilB club to Beit Hecht. The offer was rejected by the pensioners since even the Hecht building is not accessible as required, it does not have sufficient parking and finally cannot contain all the club's activities. 

the situation today

It was learned that the building is included in the municipal list of "buildings for preservation" although we did not find a sign as usual.

Seven years after the fire, the restoration of the building is still ongoing.

In a telephone conversation with the MilB representative, we were told that the expected end date of the renovation is unknown and that the re-opening of the club has also been postponed to an unknown date.

Thanks

First, my thanks are hereby given to Ms. Neely Raziel for suggesting this building as the subject of the article.

Also, my thanks go toHaifa History Association and especially to Mr Yigal Greiber, the association's secretary, for their help in locating the information needed to write this article.

We invite our readers to suggest buildings as subjects for articles and if interesting stories are found behind them we will be happy to review them in this section.

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.

contact: At watsapBy email

Dr. David Bar On
Dr. David Bar On
Dr. David Bar On • Architect and urban planner

More articles from the same reporter

27 תגובות

  1. Mainz is one of my favorite cities in Germany, I have visited there many times and enjoyed it every time, so does Haifa!

  2. It is not clear who gave a response on behalf of Milav that the retirees club has not been active since the fire.

    The Carmel Club is a large active club that operates continuously regardless of the fire in the library, and has a variety of activities for the senior citizen population.

    As of October 22.10.24, XNUMX, the club is not active due to the tightening of the directives of the Home Front Command since it does not have a protected area.

    Let's hope for good days when we can return and operate there

    • Thank you for your response. I was told that the MilB branch that operated in Beit Mainz is closed and that there is no expected date for a return to activity. It was not stated in the article that MILV stopped acting. Happy holiday!

  3. The library in Beit Meinitz provided a response to a huge population that today, without a choice, is all drained to the Beit Yad Labanim library. There is no response at all to the residents of the Carmel center. And it's a shame...

    • Thank you for your comment, I hope someone in the mayor's office will read your comment. May you be signed and sealed in the book of life !

  4. Every word that has been written about the Mainz library is true. The dreamers of the Haifa municipality, including the city engineer and Mrs. Dr. Einat Kalish Rotem, further destroyed the chance to renovate the building.
    The goal was to build an elevator for MilB.
    By order of the engineer, a skeleton was built in front of the building and the construction of the elevator was stopped.
    This has become a white elephant that tarnishes the historical site that is dear to so many people in Israel and around the world.
    Perhaps today, after the damage was bad and Ms. Dr. Kalish resigned from her position as mayor, let's hope that Mr. Yona Yahav, today the elected mayor, is a person with a lot of experience who cares about Haifa and has the ability to change the situation in everything related to the Mainz House building.

    Dr. Mordechai Weinberger
    Haifa.

    • Thank you for your response, may the typical Haifa recovery soon pass these days! May you be signed and sealed in the book of life !

  5. The building is active.
    Due to the situation and because there is no protected space in the building, the activity is currently disabled, I am personally in the Arabic class...
    Happy New Year

    • Thank you for your comment, it contradicts what was given by Mil'B. May you be signed and sealed in the book of life!

    • Thank you for your response, it corresponds to what was said in the article, although the name of the boarding house was not specified. May you be signed and sealed in the book of life!

  6. It doesn't take 7 years to renovate a building that isn't that big (like it doesn't take 4 years and NIS 80 million to renovate the Talpiot Market). They just don't feel like doing it for their own reasons and that's obvious. Everything is abandoned. Also pay attention to the Maternal Hospital in Presidente 19, which has been abandoned for years except for a fence around it. There is nothing around it. In my opinion, on purpose to destroy another historic building for the benefit of real estate agents. Being on a preservation list does not guarantee preservation. A municipality that terrorizes its residents and despises its past.

  7. Greetings,
    The article is full of incorrect and inaccurate data.
    I was born in this house, it belonged to the general guardian and not to the municipality, we lived there from 1939 until the 70s when Mr. Federman paid my grandfather a development fee and transferred the property to the municipality so that it could be used for public purposes. You should check before passing on information to the public

    • Thank you for your response. First, I would expect a big thank you from you. Second, the fact that the article does not give all of your family history does not make it incorrect. May you be signed and sealed in the book of life!

  8. Thank you for your response. The second floor is not accessible. How can it serve the disabled pensioners?! May you be signed and sealed in the book of life!

    • Thanks for your comment, but didn't you notice the illustration accompanying the article? For your information, in my articles there are only illustrations - photographed elsewhere! Good signing finale!

  9. First, the second floor serves Gimlai Milav after the municipality performed a strength test for the structure.
    The activity was also during the corona with restrictions.
    At the beginning of the war, since there was no protected place, the activity moved to a building with a protected place.
    After the easing of the protection guidelines, the activity returned recently, until the tightening of the protection guidelines in Haifa and the activity was stopped again.
    In my opinion, after the improvement of the security situation, Milav's activity will return.
    Indeed, what is required is to make the building accessible with an elevator.

  10. There is no renovation in the place, everything is as it were
    YHB is a destructive mayor for culture and development in Haifa.
    Those who elected him a second time = gerontocracy, the rule of pensioners who want benefits and looting the coffers for themselves
    And so they chose the one who robbed and looted...
    The entire city council must be removed to appoint a called committee.
    Hundreds of public buildings in Haifa are old and crumbling, making only a patch on a patch. Even the few that build are full of omissions and at a low level with the minimum...
    This city is sinking because of a criminal municipality with huge budgets for huge salaries and a committee that uses the budget for benefits and nepotism.
    The burned Mintz house. The neglected mother garden. The Mena Katz Museum is closed. The destroyed Allenby Garden. Abandoned Comet Cinema. The neglected Mania Garden.

    • Thank you for your response. Indeed, I got the impression that the renovation is proceeding lazily and at this rate, who knows when it will be finished?

  11. The problem is that there is no access for an elderly population that needs an elevator, they started building and stopped and this is how the abandoned looks like

    • Thank you for your response. Making the structure accessible is not such a complex operation if only the right factors are guided to carry it out without delay. Retirees do not have unlimited time to wait…

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