Oliphant house in Dalyat al-Karmel, Memorial building in Daliyat al-Karmel, Israel
The Oliphant house is a stone building with Victorian architectural features, positioned on a hillside in Daliyat al-Karmel with open views of the surrounding landscape. A Roman column marks the entrance to the residence and serves as a striking focal point when visitors approach.
Laurence Oliphant built the house in 1884 as a summer retreat for himself and his wife Alice, wintering in Haifa's German Colony. Alice died there on 2 January 1886; the house later passed to her sister Jamesina Waller, was rented to Germans, seized by the Turkish army in World War I, and sold in 1926 to the missionary Frances Newton. In 1979 the Israel Lands Administration bought it from the Suidan family, and in 1981 it became the Druze Yad LaBanim memorial house.
The house is named after Laurence Oliphant, who built it in 1884 as a summer retreat with his wife Alice; the couple wintered in Haifa's German Colony. Naftali Herz Imber, author of "Hatikvah", lived here as Oliphant's secretary. Since 1981 the building has housed the Druze Yad LaBanim memorial, and the founders' hall displays photographs of about 150 Druze figures.
The house stands in the centre of the village's old core, next to the Maqam of Nabi Abu Ibrahim, with a view toward Nahal Bustan, Ein Hod, Beit Oren and the Atlit shore. The memorial rooms are on the ground floor, where the fallen soldiers' room was moved in 2012 for lack of a lift.
Naftali Herz Imber, author of the poem that became Israel's anthem "Hatikvah", lived in this house as Laurence Oliphant's secretary. Oliphant's wife Alice died here on 2 January 1886; he stayed behind, ill, and did not attend her funeral. In the courtyard he set up a stone memorial to her, using an ancient column drum found while digging the foundations.
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