The Origins of Ainab in 1932-33 as recollected by Dorothy Kerr Jessup

There are so many questions I would like to ask about the origins of the property. I can only offer bits and pieces:

I grew up in Lebanon in the 1930’s and 40’s, and think often of Ainab as my favorite place in the world.

I was born Dorothy Kerr, Malcolm Kerr’s sister, and Anne’s sister in law.  We built our house there in the 1930’s  along  with the Dodds, Closes, Leavitt’s and Crawfords.  When our parents retired and came back to the US,  the original houses were sold to new owners. Ours was sold to the Crows, whom I never met, but see someone by that name listed among those receiving this message. Sad to say, none of  the Dodd children are still living, and a good many of the others as well, but I’m still in touch with Molly Crawford and may be able to find Ray Close (we’re all in our eighties now.) My brother Doug Kerr is the only other one still alive in our family, from our generation.

I remember being told the story about how the property was first found and purchased by the five young AUB faculty families, but I was so young at the time, I didn’t pay much attention to details.   All I know is that they bought the property around the time my father was on sabbatical in the US, and that would have been 1932-33.  Their basic concept was an arrangement of shared, community property, with each family owning it’s individual property and home surrounding a community space, which was, of course, to be a Tennis Court, along with a space for socializing, singing, story telling and bonfires.  I don’t know how our parents managed to decide amicably who would get the lot with the best view, but somehow they managed to make that decision, and everyone seemed quite pleased with the outcome.

The Closes had the house with the panoramic view of Beirut, the sea beyond, and the sunsets.

The Dodds built their house close to the trails that climbed the mountain behind our property, and, as I mentioned before,  made the house so high that they got marvelous views from a very high porch.

The Leavitts and Crawfords had nice views of the Ainab valley.

And our parents (the Kerrs) said what they wanted most was the lot with the most privacy. So the lot they chose was on the side of the Ainab hilltop away from all the views, but with a nice vista below of an evergreen forest where the way-wees (jackals) howled at night. We used to lie in our shack at night listening to them and other sounds from the forest,  but once we got used to them, we kind of liked that. Our father built a vineyard  on the land just below the house and above the forest, with the help of Arab villagers.  So that all provided a very different,  lovely setting. 

 

Our house was the last one to be built, and we moved in when I was six (around 1936).  I remember being very impressed watching the Arab movers carrying our furniture, without the help of any equipment or animals. One man carried a large piano on his back for quite some distance, from the top of the hill where the moving van was parked, down quite a long path to the house, never stopping to rest.

The tennis court and community space hadn’t been developed yet, but that construction began during the first summer,  with a crew of Arab workers, and that was an amazingly exciting period for us children. For reasons I can’t explain, there was a lot of blasting involved, with dynamite (I can’t remember the word in Arabic).  Every time the workers were about to set off the dynamite, they’d call out very loudly, and we’d all run as fast as we could to get as far away as possible.  In retrospect, I wonder if our parents had any doubts for our safety, but I remember it only as being vey exciting!   After they’d cleared the ground and leveled it (very carefully, I’m sure, for all of our fathers were devout tennis players)  they paved it.

(Whether they laid a base before the asphalt, I couldn’t say, but maybe Ray remembers.)   I believe there was some discussion at an earlier point about whether the surface should have been clay instead, but I’m pretty sure the reason for asphalt was that it would be very low maintenance, and that was a big consideration given that the Arab villagers in Ainab and Beysour were not at all likely to have had any experience in maintaining tennis courts!   I don’t know, and wonder if anyone does, whether our parents realized at the time that asphalt would probably crack and heave, if the ground below it ever froze.  But if they hadn’t, I don’t recall anyone ever complaining about  that crazy surface in later years.  Somehow, those cracks and humps and bumps just seemed to be taken for granted, as an added to the challenge of the game, in the years I played tennis there.  Others can comment on their own experience and reactions in future years) .

 I’ll have other stories to tell in the future about our various childhood (group) adventures, maybe little by little.  Dorothy