Page 50 - Holyland Magazine - 2010 Edition

Old City was too small for the
newcomers and so they moved
to a mansion outside the Old
City walls that had been built in
the 1870s by the scion of a
wealthy local family, Rabakh
Effendi al-Husseini, first renting
and eventually buying the
premises. The Old City house
eventually became the Spafford
Children’s Center, starting out
in 1925 as a home for babies
abandoned during World War I.
Today it provides a wide range
of medical, psychological and
social services to children and
their mothers.
What is the connection between
this moving story and an award-
winning hotel on the prestigious
list of Leading Small Hotels of
the World?
The home of the Spaffords and
their community became a hotel
somewhat by chance. In 1902,
Baron Ustinov (grandfather of
the actor Peter Ustinov), himself a hotelier in
Jaffa, needed extra rooms to house his guests.
He turned to what had already become known
as “the American Colony” for help. They took
in his overflow and that is how the American
Colony Hotel was born. Baron Ustinov presented
Bertha Spafford and Frederick Vester with a
pair of palm trees on their wedding day in 1904,
which were planted at the hotel. The flourishing
palm that now stands in the original courtyard
was presented by Peter Ustinov in 1995 as a
replacement for the originals. A few years ago,
Igor Ustinov, Peter’s son, raked Jerusalem earth
over a 120-year-old olive tree in honor of
50
the 120th anniversary of the
founding of the hotel. On hand
was the late Valentine Vester,
then 93 years old, the daughter-
in-law of the Spaffords, with a
host of other dignitaries from
all walks of Jerusalem life.
The American Colony is appealing not only for The charm of the original old
its beauty and meaningful history; it is walking stone house, which now serves
distance from the Old City and the Garden as the hotel lobby and public
Tomb, and its tranquil courtyard restaurant rooms, has only increased over
(above) is the perfect place for a break on a the decades. Like many homes
busy day of sightseeing. of the period, it was built around
a courtyard, where the hotel’s
“When peace like a river popular open-air restaurant is
now located. The ceilings in
attendeth my way, some of the rooms are
extravagantly painted in a style
When sorrows like sea-billows roll, the experts call “Turkish
Baroque,” combining East and
Whatever my lot, West, which was popular in 19th
century Palestine among the
Thou has taught me to know; upper class. One fine example
is in the “Pasha’s Room,” where
‘It is well, it is well with my soul.’” bouquets of flowers are painted
in the European style around a
recessed, star-studded midnight-blue octagon.
Three more of these beautiful ceilings can be
found in top-floor rooms of the original building,
preserving some of the last remaining examples
of this nearly lost art form.
The American Colony Hotel is a place to see
a beautiful historic building preserved in all its
glory, but also to pay homage to some true
American pioneers of faith. As Bertha Spafford
Vester wrote of her father, his faith came through
triumphant and strong. On the high seas, near
the place where his children perished, he wrote
the hymn that was to give comfort to so many.