Ohel Shlomo was established by Yitzchak Lipkin (1834-1927), a Jewish immigrant from Russian Empire to Ottoman Jerusalem and businessman. Lipkin opposed the
halukka system of welfare handouts, encouraging Jerusalem residents to support themselves by their own labor. To that end, he provided the financing for two neighborhoods in close proximity to each other along the northern side of Jaffa Road – Ohel Shlomo and Sha'arei Yerushalayim – and sold houses to individuals with easy payment terms. Ohel Shlomo was established in the spring of 1891 with a plan calling for the construction of 50 homes within two years – 20 homes fronting Jaffa Road and 30 homes on the adjacent field to the north. and by 1897, 45. In a 1916 census conducted by the office of the
Histadrut, the number of homes in Ohel Shlomo had reached 56, with a total of 215 occupants. According to
Kroyanker, 145 homes were eventually built in the courtyard. The school for the blind operated in Ohel Shlomo for eight years, educating 42 students. Afterward it moved to the
Street of the Prophets, next to the Rothschild Hospital. Architects created a physical reminder of the historic homes by erecting in their place a concrete memorial inlaid with the original door and window frames of the destroyed buildings. To emphasize the shape of the frames, the surrounding wall was plastered in shades of
turquoise,
terracotta, and
ochre. ==Present-day landmarks==