The
Aga Rashid villa, as it was originally known after the man who built and owned it, was raised in the early 1860s outside the
Old City walls. It was typical of the urban
Ottoman architecture of the time, with vaulted ceilings, thick walls and a large central hall flanked by side rooms. It was surrounded by a spacious garden. Over the years, rooms were added and the house was extended at the front and back. In 1924, Dr. Abraham Albert Ticho, an ophthalmologist, and his wife,
Anna Ticho, an artist, bought the house. Dr. Ticho was stabbed and seriously wounded during the
1929 Palestine riots. Thousands of Jews, Christians and Arabs prayed for his recovery. When he was able to return to work, he opened a new clinic on the first floor of Beit Ticho and continued to take patients there until his retirement in 1950.
Trachoma was widespread in Jerusalem at the time, and he often treated hundreds of patients per day. The Tichos hosted local and British government officials in their home, as well as artists, writers, academics and intellectuals. Anna Ticho bequeathed the house and its contents, including her husband's
Judaica collections and library, to the
Israel Museum. ==See also==