Finn's House, Heritage residence at Ovadia Street 24 in Kerem Avraham neighborhood, Jerusalem

Finn's House, on Ovadia Street in the Kerem Avraham neighbourhood, is a two-storey stone-and-lime house built in 1855 by about fifty Jewish workers. Its two floors were added gradually, and the land it stands on had earlier held a Roman columbarium, rock-cut winepresses and cisterns. Inscriptions over the entrance and gate record the 1852 land purchase and the 1855 construction.

The British consul James Finn and his wife bought the land in 1852 for £250, paid in instalments over five years. The house was built in 1855 by about fifty Jewish workers as part of Finn's settlement scheme, which he called a "colony of industry for employing the people of Jerusalem". The couple farmed the surrounding plot as Kerem Avraham, planting olives and vines.

The building represents a turning point in how Jerusalem residents chose to live, as families began settling beyond the ancient city walls for the first time. You can see how this shift shaped the neighborhood's character and social patterns.

The house is located on Ovadia Street and is reachable on foot from the city center, though the walk is uphill. The best time to visit is early morning or late afternoon when the heat is less intense.

The land beneath the house held a Roman-era columbarium, rock-cut winepresses and cisterns dug by Jewish workers of the Old Yishuv. Pnina Grajewsky recorded Hebrew inscriptions carved on the cisterns, among them "Gather the people and I will give them water."