First site (top right) in 1930 The original hospital opened by the
Order of St John in 1882 on the Bethlehem Road just south of the
old city of Jerusalem.
Queen Victoria granted the hospital a
Royal Charter.
Sir Edmund Lechmere, 3rd Baronet was one of the key figures in the establishment of the hospital. Lechmere and his wife were among the founders of
Venerable Order of St John and had travelled several times to Jerusalem where they witnessed the need of its residents for eye care. During the
First World War, the hospital was closed and its building was taken over by the Turkish Army, who used it to store ammunition. During the
Battle of Jerusalem in 1917, the building was damaged. Following the establish of the British
Mandate for Palestine, the architect
Clifford Holliday was hired to renovate the building. Holliday also designed a new wing and the nearby
St Andrew's Church, which were both opened in 1930. The new wing was situated across the street, on the opposite side of Hebron Road. In the 1960s, after the hospital moved to its current location, the Clifford Holliday wing became an
arts and crafts center, henceforth known as the . In the 1970s, the original hospital building was sold to a developer who wanted to demolish it and build a hotel in its place. Following a campaign by the
Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, the developer was barred from demolishing the building; instead he was permitted to build an extension to it, in keeping with the original style of the building, and to renovate and preserve the original structure. The hotel was opened in the 1980s and was named the Mt. Zion Hotel.
Second site Street,
Old City, marking the location of the medieval hospital, as well as the second site of the modern hospital (1949–1960) Following the
1949 Armistice Agreements between
Israel and
Jordan, the valley just below the hospital building and
Mount Zion, which had been on the
front line at the time of the armistice, were designated as
no-man's land. The hospital could not operate at this location anymore. Additionally, what had now become Jordan-ruled
East Jerusalem was cut off from the building. Between 1949 and 1960 the hospital operated from two buildings, the Watson House and the Strathearn House, owned by the Order in
Muristan Street in the
Old City of Jerusalem (see monument inscription in the photo).
Third site The hospital's present building was opened in 1960 at
Nashashibi Street in the
Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem. ==Current Jerusalem hospital==