About the Consulate

History

The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem was first established in 1844 and was located in the Old City, just inside the Jaffa Gate; a permanent consular office was established in 1856 in this same building, which is today the Swedish Christian Study center.

At the time of the Jerusalem Consulate’s founding, U.S. Consulates around the world were little more than early tourist agencies, planning trips for traveling Americans and offering protection when needed. Indeed, like other U.S. diplomats around the world during the nineteenth century, U.S. Consuls in Jerusalem supplemented their meager $1,500 annual salary with proceeds from fees charged American tourists in the Holy Land. One of the most famous nineteenth-century American visitors to Jerusalem was Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), who recorded his adventures in the Holy Land in "Innocents Abroad." With tens of thousands of U.S. citizens living, working, and travelling in Jerusalem and the West Bank, assistance to American citizens remains a top priority of the Consulate.

The U.S. Consulate moved to a second site on Prophets’ Street, a few blocks outside the Old City, in the late nineteenth century before relocating in 1912 to its present site on Agron Road in West Jerusalem. The current Consulate was built in 1868 by the German Lutheran missionary Ferdinand Vester, whose family and associates built many of the Arab-style homes in Jerusalem (particularly in the nearby German Colony near the train station), as well as the American Colony Hotel. The building was one of the first houses constructed outside the Old City walls, built at the same time Moses Montefiore founded Yemin Moshe on the hillside between the King David Hotel and the Old City. The original Consulate had only two stories; a third story was added in the early twentieth century. The main building houses both the Consul General’s residence and office space for Consulate employees.

After World War I, the U.S. Government leased a second site on Nablus Road in East Jerusalem, which is used today for Consular Affairs offices (passports and visas). The East and West Jerusalem offices are united under the authority of the U.S. Consul General who reports independently to Washington on Jerusalem and West Bank issues. Throughout this century, Americans, Palestinian, and Israelis -- Christians, Muslims and Jews -- have worked together at the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem, demonstrating that the people of the Holy land can live and work together in peace