Tucked away on a side street in the historic Zokak el Blat neighborhood, you can make out a rusty silver structure– an American barn, assembled in the 1920s and still standing today.
Here is a closer view:
I discovered this gem on a recent walking tour of the neighborhood with historian Christine Lindner, PHD, who is studying the influential American missionary presence in Lebanon over the last two centuries.
The barn was shipped to Beirut in pieces from Ohio and had served as The American Press. You can read more about the history in this fascinating post by Dr. Lindner, which contains this picture from the early 1930s:
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| Near East School of Theology archives |
Little has changed of the structure as we can see by comparing the two photos, though the trees have grown significantly past the roof:
The press was sold by the missionaries in the 1960s and is now owned by Librairie du Liban. The men on duty were kind enough to let us inside:
Librarie du Liban uses the bottom two floors as a storage area, but the top floor remains abandoned, containing a number of treasures.
Some shelves were better kept than others:
We actually found a box of old unbound manuscripts from the 1940s:
The staff told us most of the old printing machines had been moved, but much to our delight, several had been left behind:
Again, some in better shape than others:
There was also a manufacturer’s plaque on the outside of the barn:
Again special thanks to Dr. Christine and good folks at Near East School of Theology who will be launching the Research Center on Protestant Heritage in the Middle East this coming November.
