Benefactors’ coats of arms revealed on early 20th century Jerusalem building
Images found during renovations of the Mt. Zion Hotel, previously a hospital; the donors, the subject of an upcoming exhibit, included King George V and Edward Cecil Guinness
Gavriel Fiske is a reporter at The Times of Israel
During the British Mandate period in Jerusalem, after World War I, a new wing was built for the old ophthalmologic hospital just outside the Old City on Hebron Road, funded by British royals and luminaries of the day, who left some two dozen of their coats of arms adorning the stone walls of the new building.
After the War of Independence, the new wing was eventually repurposed into a hotel, and the coats of arms, many of which had been damaged or destroyed during the war, were largely forgotten.
Recently, however, an Israel Antiquities Authority team successfully identified most of the 23 coats of arms, and working with an illustrator reproduced many of them, the IAA said Monday in a press release.
The coats of arms include those of King George V, who was reigning monarch when the new hospital wing was constructed; Major General Aldred Lumley, the Earl of Scarbrough; Edward Cecil Guinness, the Irish beer magnate; Jewish aristocrat Sir Edward Stern, uncle of philanthropist Vera Salomons; and others.
The original building, the British Ophthalmologic Hospital, was founded in 1882 by the Order of Saint John, a British royal order, and for a few generations was the only hospital of its kind in the region.
The contributors whose coats of arms adorned the walls of the new wing, completed around 1930, were all members of the order, which still runs an ophthalmologic hospital in Jerusalem, serving mostly patients from the city’s Arab eastern neighborhoods and the West Bank.
The original building eventually became the Jerusalem House of Quality, an arts and cultural center sometimes known as the “Artists’ Quarter,” while the new wing was eventually purchased and transformed into the Mt. Zion Hotel, where the coats of arms were rediscovered during current renovations.
“During the ongoing major Mount Zion Hotel renovation project, a dedication inscription suddenly appeared attributed to John Mason Cook, a great contributor to the hospital. He and his father were the founders of the first modern travel/touring company in the world, in existence until today – the famed Thomas Cook & Son,” said IAA archaeologist Dr. Amit Re’em.
“Exploring the other abandoned rooms of the former hospital revealed another dedication, of a woman named Genevieve Watson, a well-known Jerusalem personality and generous benefactor, who dedicated the remainder of her life and her wealth to the service of the hospital,” Re’em said.
These initial discoveries led to a formal investigation into the coats of arms, giving some new insights into Jerusalem during the Mandate period and how some members of the British aristocracy and elite classes took to funding projects in the city.
Re’em said that although the finds are “relatively modern,” such investigations are part of preserving “that which will become archaeology in the future.”
The results of the IAA’s work on the coats of arms, including colored reproductions created by artist Anastasia Prokofyeva and biographical information about each contributor, will be presented to the public starting June 20 at an open exhibit at the Jerusalem House of Quality.
