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Advanced Level – ‫בית העיר‬

Beit-Ha'ir

At the heart of Bialik Square, stands one of Tel-Aviv's beautiful
and impressive houses: Beit-Ha'ir.
The magnificent building was built in 1924 in order to serve as a
hotel. At that period, there were financial difficulties in Israel, as
well as in the world, and therefore the hotel was never opened. It
the city's early years, Beit Ha'ir was inside the city's water
tower. The first mayor of Tel-Aviv, Meir Dizengoff, and his
friends from the municipality, wanted to build a worthy city hall
instead of the small water tower, but they could not because they
did not have enough money. So, what did Meir Dizengoff and
his friends do? Instead of building a new city hall, they rented
the hotel. The building served as a city hall until 1965. In 1965,
the municipality moved to its current location at Rabin Square.

The seniors of the city remember how this place used to be the
center of Tel-Aviv and how a crowd of people used to arrive at
Beit Ha'ir daily. Ceremonies, lectures, demonstrations and etc
were held there.

In 1971, the building became a museum of the history of the city
of Tel-Aviv until the nineties.

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