US Embassy Algiers / DCMR Historic Structure Report

Algiers

VOLUME 1: ARCHITECTURAL & HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

United States Embassy, Algiers, Algeria • Deputy Chief of Mission Residence (DCMR )

Historic Structure Report

Final Submission • 14 June 2023

OBO Contract # SAQMMA15D0118 • Task Order # 19AQMM19F35322

Algiers DCMR Volume

INTRODUCTION

• Purpose of the Report

• Site Visit Team

• Acknowledgements

1.1

•

of

and

• Diplomatic Relations between Algeria and the United States

1.3

• Development of the DCMR Site during the Ottoman Period (Early 1500s–1830)

• The Oued El Kilaï during French Colonial Rule (1831–1962)

• Acquisition and Occupation by the US Government (1962–Present)

Introduction / DCMR

OVERVIEW

This four-volume set comprises the Historic Structure and Cultural Landscapes Report (HSR) for the Deputy Chief of Mission Residence that is part of the US Diplomatic Mission properties in Algiers, Algeria. The US Department of State, Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) commissioned this HSR from the Davis Brody Bond Study Team comprised of Davis Brody Bond, architects and planners, Robinson & Associates, architecture researchers and historians, Building Conservation Associates, building restoration specialists, Rhodeside Harwell, landscape architects, Thornton Tomasetti, structural engineers, and WSP, MEP engineers. The Team developed this report after visiting the DCMR during the week of June 26-30, 2022. Volume 1 will be available to the broad reading public. Volumes 2, 3, and 4 will be available to readers with USG authorized access. Each volume contains specific information as described following:

• Volume 1 presents the architecture and landscape histories and significance of the property, its characterdefining features, and its status under Algerian preservation/cultural heritage law.

• Volume 2 documents and discusses existing conditions of the landscape, building, and building systems.

• Volume 3 includes paint and stucco analyses, and estimated construction cost information.

• Volume 4 offers operations and maintenance information and recommendations.

While it is possible to use each volume independently, the Study Team recommends that authorized first-time readers start at the beginning, developing an acquaintance with Volumes 1 and 2, before passing on to Volumes 3 and 4.

PURPOSE OF THE REPORT

Paraphrasing the SOW, the purpose of this Historic Structure and Cultural Landscapes Report follows:

The objectives of the HSR are to identify and document original and lost design and building history, and to describe the current conditions of architecture and building systems. It includes discussion of deterioration and causes; and proposes treatments to maintain and restore its historic character within the requirements of DoS Diplomatic use.

The content and objectives of the HSR are guided by the How to Write a Historic Structure Report by David H. Arbogast (2011); “Preservation Brief 43: Preparation and Use of Historic Structures “, National Park Service, 2005; Chapter 8 w/appendix C of NPS-28: Cultural Resource Management Guideline; The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties with Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural Landscapes ed. by Charles Birnbaum (1996); and “Preservation Brief 36: Protecting Cultural Landscapes: Planning, Treatment and Management of Historic Landscapes,” National Park Service, 1944.

A DoS HSR has critical differences from a traditional HSR produced for structures and landscapes within the United States which may be eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. Its sole purpose is to fulfill a legal and moral stewardship responsibility within and subject to the requirements of the DoS and a diplomatic mission: it will inform and guide the Department in its use and maintenance of the structure and grounds and provide the knowledge by which to judge potential proposed alterations. A majority of the document itself will not be distributed outside DoS: Volume 1, “Architectural and Historical Significance” section will be available for academic or public research purposes.

METHODOLOGY

Research methods include the examination of both primary and secondary sources from select US, Algerian, and French archives and repositories. Sources are listed in the bibliography; some appear in the text.

The existing building and landscape were studied during a Site Trip the week of June 26-30, 2022, by the A/E team of historical, engineering, preservation, conservation, landscape, and architectural professionals. During the visit, the team conducted field observation and recording, including review and field verification of extant documentation, field measurement and sketching, detail and HABS-level 2 photography, and laser scanning.

Team members interviewed Embassy staff including David Treleaven, Tewfik Tizioualou, and Mahdi Tayeb, Post Building Systems SMEs, and DCMR house staff including Mr. Boudejema, Chief Gardener regarding the practices of day-to-day and special event use, the history of maintenance, equipment and systems upgrades, and prior and forthcoming renovation projects. Team members performed site and building tours of areas of disciplinary interest accompanied by Post SMEs. The team members participated in a tour of the DCMR led by Professor Samia Chergui, an Algiers architectural historian.

In the fall of 2022, a project developed by the Office of Cultural Heritage got under way that sought to remediate areas of damage to the exterior of the DCMR, caused primarily by moisture intrusion into the building. The project necessitated removal of the exterior layer of stucco from the DCMR, revealing the construction of its walls. In late January, after the team had submitted the 50% draft of the HSR, Lauren Hall of Cultural Heritage conducted a visual assessment of the exposed masonry walls. She was joined for a part of this assessment by Professor Samia Chergui of the Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University “Saad Dahlab” Blida 1, who conducted research in local repositories for use by the team in the HSR and helped interpret the findings of the visual inspection. A summary of the scope of work for the project and observations during the visual assessment were provided in April 2023 as the team prepared its final HSR submission. The assessment concluded that the DCMR has undergone at least six building campaigns. Four of these campaigns are likely to have taken place during the period of architectural and

landscape significance (ca. 1800 to 1935), and another may have taken place during this time. While these observations were received too late to be incorporated into the HSR, they have been added as Appendix E in Volume 2 of the report. As a result of this information, some conclusions reached in the Chronology of Development and Use may be in error. For instance, based on the 2013 Swanke Hayden Connell report, the HSR assumed that the current front door of the DCMR was located in a part of the building constructed during the period of French rule in Algiers. Observations of the structure during the current work at the DCMR resulted in a determination that the wall where the door is located was likely constructed during the Ottoman period. Conclusions in the HSR for this area based on the assumption of French construction are therefore suspect. These conclusions are located primarily in section 1.3, Chronology of Development and Use, and section 1.5, Physical Description and Character-Defining Features. In light of these findings, it is recommended that these two sections of the HSR should be consulted in tandem with Volume 2, Appendix E and other available information resulting from the remediation project when determining the date of any particular part of the DCMR and when making decisions regarding the interpretation or treatment of the building

SITE VISIT TEAM

ARCHITECTURE

/ ENGINEERING CONSULTANT TEAM

Davis Brody Bond Architecture

• Christopher K. Grabé, FAIA

• A. Eugene Sparling, AIA

WSP

MEP / IT / SEC

• Michael Cosentino

Thornton Tomasetti Structure

• Evan Lapointe, PE

Robinson & Associates Historical Analysis

• Daria Gasparini

• Tim Kerr

Introduction / DCMR (cont’d)

Professor Samia Chergui

University of Saad Dahleb, Bilda, Algeria Local Architecture History and Research Rhodeside & Harwell Landscape

• Faye Harwell, FASLA

• Rachel Schneider, LA

BCA

Paint & Materials Analysis Field Measuring, Scans, and Photographs

• Christopher Gembinski (BCA)

• Rimvydas (Danius) Glinskis (BCA)

• Alexander (Alex) Ray (BCA)

• Erica Morasset (BCA)

• Fernando Viteri (Langan)

• Joseph Magers (Langan)

• T. Whitney Cox (Whitney Cox Photography)

• Tommaso Sacconi (Whitney Cox Photography)

US DEPARTMENT OF STATE BUREAU OF OVERSEAS BUILDINGS OPERATIONS (OBO)

• Virginia Price, OBO, OCH

• Andrew Fackler, OBO, CH

EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES ALGIERS, ALGERIA

• Ambassador Aubin, AMB

• Mr. Aubin

• Kristin Rockwood, MGT

• Greg Geerdes, RSO

• Tobias Slaton, RSO Office

• David Treleaven, FM

• Tewfik Tizioualou, FM Office

• Leila Kouroughli, FM Office

• Mahdi Tayeb, FM Office

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This Historic Structure Report (HSR) for the Deputy Chief of Mission Residence of the US Diplomatic Mission in Algiers benefits from the cooperation and contributions of individuals and organizations which Davis Brody Bond gratefully acknowledges.

First and foremost, we thank Ambassador Aubin who generously opened the DCMR to the team throughout the five-day visit and primed the Post to support the project wholeheartedly. The report also benefits from the contributions of others at Post. Mr. Dan Aubin, guided tours of the CMR and DCMR and freely shared his extensive experience of both buildings, offering knowledge and ideas about their proper preservation and stewardship. Kristin Rockwood, MGT, and Tobias Slaton (RSO office) provided an introductory tour and security briefing, and image review. Ms. Rockwood arranged and accompanied an evening tour of the Casbah. Greg Geerdes, RSO, offered a focused security briefing. David Treleaven, FM, provided the Team with workspace, building access, secure storage, background information, access to Post archives, and generally assured a smooth and productive Site Visit. Tewfik Tizioualou, Mahdi Tayeb of the FM Office, facilitated meetings between visiting consultants and Post maintenance and building engineering staff, provided recent building maintenance information and more. Leila Kouroughli in the FM offices facilitated local travel and coordinated expert assistance for arrivals and departures.

We are very grateful for the extensive research work performed by Samia Chergui, Professeur en histoire de l’architecture, Institut d’Architecture et d’Urbanisme (Université Saad DAHLAB/Blida 1) who uncovered in Algerian archives and repositories information that informs the entire study, including building and urban histories, significant historic maps and other records. Mr. Francisco Javier Escribano Lax, an Algiers architectural conservation contractor met with the Team and led a tour of the CMR highlighting conservation work he had completed there and offering thoughts on future projects.

The Team also greatly thanks Virginia Price, the OBO Project Manager. Virginia gathered and provided access to records in the Real Estate division at OBO as well as documents in the Cultural Heritage office, including drawings, photographs, reports, and correspondence that helped document acquisition of the buildings by the United States, as well as changes to the CMR and DCMR during US ownership. She also helped organize the Casbah tour, which greatly added to the Team’s understanding of architecture in Algiers during the periods of Ottoman and French rule.

1.1 Executive Summary / DCMR

The US Department of State, Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) commissioned this four volume Historic Structures Report from the Davis Brody Bond Team comprised of Davis Brody Bond, architects and planners, Robinson & Associates, architecture historians, Building Conservation Associates, building restoration specialists, Rhodeside Harwell, landscape architects, Thornton Tomasetti, structural engineers, and WSP, MEP engineers. This four-volume report was developed following a visit to the DCMR during the week of June 26-30, 2022. It includes an overview of the architecture and landscape histories and significance of the property now serving as the Deputy Chief of Mission Residence for the US Embassy in Algiers. The report also includes a survey of the existing conditions of the building and site, materials analysis, and an operation and maintenance program. A summary of the four volumes of the report follows.

The Deputy Chief of Mission Residence at 5 Chemin Cheikh, Bachir Ibrahimi in Algiers was built as a luxurious villa on slopes above the city beginning in the18th Century. It has been changed and expanded multiple times since. The DCMR is not identified as a historic cultural resource under Algerian law.

VOLUME 1 ARCHITECTURE AND HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

Volume 1 describes the Architectural and Historical Significance of the property. It traces the urban development of Algiers and offers a broad outline of Algerian architecture and landscape design in the 18th and 19th Centuries. It describes the DCMR’s chronology of ownership, use, and development in its context. There is a summary of ongoing US-Algerian diplomatic relations beginning in Ottoman times.

Following the US Department of the Interior guidelines for applying the National Register of Historic Places criteria for evaluation, Robinson & Associates establishes two periods of significance for the DCMR. The first is from 1800-1935, the second from 1962-1966. Together, Rhodeside Harwell and Robinson & Associates provide detailed descriptions of the landscape and the building exteriors and interiors, identifying copious characterdefining features.

VOLUME 2

EXISTING CONDITIONS

During the June 2022 Site Visit, DBB Team members examined the DCMR, recording with field notes, sketches, and photographs existing conditions pertaining to their respective professional disciplines. Volume 2 presents the record created, and disciplinary analyses of the existing conditions in the field. In summary:

CHAPTER 1

STRUCTURE

Thornton Tomasetti (TT), project consulting structural engineer reviewed visible structure at all levels and examined select concealed structure with the use of a borescope. The structural report finds the building structure to be in good condition overall with localized conditions warranting attention.

CHAPTER 2

MEP/FP/FA/IT/TSS SYSTEMS

WSP, project consulting building systems engineer reviewed and documented existing mechanical, plumbing, fire protection, electrical, telecommunications, and security systems installations in the field. In addition, WSP interviewed engineering staff charged with the operation and maintenance of existing systems. Generally, WSP finds the existing building systems to be in acceptable working order. For details, please refer to Volume 2.

CHAPTER 3

LANDSCAPE EXISTING CONDITIONS

Rhodeside Harwell walked, analyzed, photographed, and sketched the DCMR site. Chapter 3 describes the landscape spatial organization, topography, uses, vegetation, and defining features in text and graphics.

CHAPTER 4

LANDSCAPE TREATMENT

Rhodeside Harwell’s section on landscape treatment suggests establishing a philosophy and strategies of care for the DCMR property. If offers specific treatment recommendations and suggests periodic maintenance practices.

CHAPTER 5

EXISTING ARCHITECTURE

BCA and DBB reviewed, documented, and discussed the building interiors and exteriors during the Site Visit. This chapter presents representational spaces by way of measured room plans, HABS Level 2 photographs and detail photographs. A data sheet for each representational space notes character-defining architectural features, their historic and current materials, assesses their conditions, and identifies treatment guidelines. Exterior elevations and spaces are similarly described. Overall, BCA and DBB find the building to be in good condition.

CHAPTER 6

TREATMENT OPTIONS AND WORK RECOMMENDATIONS

Guided by the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, this chapter proposes that all work on the DCMR shall respect the significance and historic condition of the building and its constituent elements. Preservation Zoning diagrams show the relative importance of different spaces, and treatment guidelines suggest appropriate conservation strategies in different preservation zones.

CHAPTER 7

ACCESSIBILITY

The DCMR was built before accessibility was a matter of concern to most architects and many building owners. This chapter maps accessibility issues in the house and landscape. It offers conceptual remedies for selected instances of non-compliance. These range from simple measures to more complex and costly interventions, such as adding an accessible toilet room, a lift, or elevator. Notably, ABA Guidelines do not require retroactive compliance of pre-existing elements. However, in historic buildings, alteration projects do trigger accessibility upgrades in the work area. To respect and maintain the historical significance of the DCMR’s representational spaces, OBO/PDCS/DE and OBO/OPS/ CH guide the precise character of accessibility upgrades.

1.1 Executive Summary / DCMR (cont’d)

VOLUME 3

DIAGNOSTIC DOCUMENTATION

BCA performed extensive diagnostic sampling for paint and exterior stucco. Analysis reports on the samples provide bases for historically appropriate restoration work. The volume also includes a cost report.

VOLUME 4

OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE PROGRAM

The Operations and Maintenance Program assists and guides DCMR stakeholders charged with the care and protection of this culturally significant property.

Digital Components

The HSR/CLR project deliverables comprise standalone digital files separate from this four-volume print report. Among them are raw, registered and photo-textured laser-scanned point clouds of the building, and a Revit model constructed from the point cloud. Digital work also includes panoramic virtual tours with interactive points of interest content for OBO-identified representational spaces. Digital products will be posted independently of print documents.

Summary of Legal Status of DCMR in Algerian Law and Algiers Ordinance

Please refer to Volume 1, Chapter 4, Section D. In summary, the property is not subject to local preservation ordinances.

Detail from Figure 1.2.6

1.2 Historical Background & Context / DCMR

DEVELOPMENT OF ALGIERS AND ITS SURROUNDINGS

Origins

The Imazighen, known also as the Berbers, have been present in northwest Africa since the beginning of recorded history, having been noted by ancient Egyptian dynasties as early as the thirteenth century BCE. The Mediterranean Sea provided means for other Iron Age peoples to reach the area, and Phoenician traders from what is now Lebanon established hundreds of settlements along the North African coast after 800 BCE. One of these settlements became known as Icosium. What is now the Casbah was built on the ruins of the Phoenician town. Both the Carthaginians in the fifth century BCE and later the Romans knew Icosium. Its inhabitants occupied four of the small islands in what is now the Bay of Algiers and a narrow strip of land along the shore. The town became a Roman colony in the first century CE under the emperor Vespasian (r. 69–79 CE), where veterans of the imperial army settled. A rampart with towers protected the land side of the settlement. The Romans laid Icosium out in a grid pattern, with water drawn from wells, public baths, and a necropolis along the main road. They built villas with gardens in the hills outside the walls. Remains of Roman Icosium, including the baths, have been have been found in the Casbah. A place of Christian worship, dating to the fourth century CE, has also been discovered.1

Firmus, a Berber Numidian prince and son of a Roman general, sacked Icosium in 373 as part of a tribal revolt against the established Roman authority. The empire put down the revolt, but the town was sacked again by the Vandals in the fifth century.2 The Vandals controlled all of

Roman North Africa until the Byzantine general Belisarius and his army defeated them in 533. The Byzantines and then Islamic Arabs reduced Icosium to ruins by the seventh century. The town’s importance declined, beginning with the sack by the Vandals, and did not revive until 944, when Bologhine ibn Ziri, the founder of the Berber Zirid—Sanhaja dynasty, established a town named al-Jaza’ir (“the islands”), a reference to the islands off the coast, on the site. The town was built into the steep hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. By that time, the dominant cultural and political influences emanated from Islam, which had been introduced in North Africa in the middle of the seventh century from Egypt. Military conquest of North Africa by the Islamic caliphate headquartered in the Arabian Peninsula had occurred in the late seventh century. The indigenous Berbers initially opposed foreign rule, but the Arab forces ultimately prevailed and extended their rule throughout North Africa and across the Mediterranean into the Iberian Peninsula. Like many towns in North Africa, Algiers was ruled by successive Arab dynasties as a minor port from the seventh century until the sixteenth. The Arabs fortified the town with surrounding walls, which are believed to have incorporated existing fortifications and later formed the basis of the walls built during Ottoman rule.3 (Figure 1.2.1)

A watershed moment for medieval Algiers was the recapture of Spain by Christians in the fifteenth century, which resulted in a wave of Islamic refugees to Algiers. The Christian powers in Europe ended trade across the Mediterranean from North Africa, reducing markets for the products of Arab and Berber agriculture and industry. Some of those formerly engaged in merchant enterprises therefore turned to privateering the seizure of money, commercial products, ships and sailors through piracy.

1. “Icosium,” The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, Richard Stillwell, William L. MacDonald, Marian Holland McAllister, editors (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1976), Tufts University website, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus% 3Atext%3A1999.04.0006%3Aentry%3Dicosium, accessed September 24, 2022; “Algiers” and “North Africa,” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica website, https:/www.britannica.com/place/Algiers, accessed September 24, 2022; Marcel Le Glay, “A la recherché d’Icosium, Antiquities Africaines 2 (1968), 10-22, Persée website, https://www.persee.fr/doc/antaf_0066-4871_1968_num_2_1_888, accessed September 30, 2022.

2. Stillwell, et al.; “Algiers,” Encyclopædia Britannica.

3. Zeynep Çelik, Urban Forms and Colonial Confrontations (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 13; Helen Chaplin Metz, ed. Algeria, a Country Study. 5th edition. Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, 1994, 11; Le Glay, 47-52.

Figure 1.2.1

German language plan of Algiers, published in 1575 (Wikimedia Commons, Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Figure 1.2.2

European portrait of Khair ad Din, ca. 1580 (Wikimedia Commons, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria)

1.2. Historical Background & Context / DCMR (cont’d)

Privateering soon became a state-sponsored business in North Africa, with Algiers becoming “the privateering state par-excellence” between 1560 and 1620. The practice was organized and regulated by the kingdoms along the coast. Captains of the corsairs who carried out the raids on mercantile shipping formed a community known as the taifa that ensured the stability of the industry. Europeans who converted to Islam could become members of the taifa.4

Algiers during the Ottoman Period (Early 1500s–1830)

Algiers came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, centered in Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey, in the early sixteenth century. Supported by Ottoman Sultan Selim I, two brothers, Aruj and Khair ad-Din, took control of Algiers in 1516. The pair had originally operated as privateers for the Berber Hafsid dynasty off what is now Tunisia. Aruj was killed in 1518, but Khair ad-Din succeeded him as military commander of Algiers. He became known to Europeans as “Barbarossa,” or “Red Beard.” (Figure 1.2.2) Khair ad-Din subsequently secured an agreement with the sultan, whereby, in exchange for his assistance in fighting the Spanish, Khair ad-Din would acknowledge Ottoman authority in the lands Red Beard conquered. In 1519, before the Ottoman troops arrived, the Spanish occupied Algiers, but ten years later, Khair ad-Din drove them out of the city. Fighting with the Spanish continued for some years. With 2,000 Turkish troops and artillery supplied by the sultan, however, Khair ad-Din ultimately subdued the North African coast between Constantine in the east and Oran in the west (although he did not conquer the city of Oran itself) and was named the area’s provincial governor. During Khair’s regency, Algiers became the center of Ottoman authority in western North Africa, beginning three centuries of Ottoman rule.5

The Ottoman Empire maintained loose control over the city and the surrounding country. New walls were built in roughly the same location as those constructed in the Arab era. The walls ran continuously for 3,100 meters,

dotted with towers and accessed through five gates; they enclosed the town on all sides, including the sea. After 1587, Algiers was ruled by Ottoman governors with the title of pasha, who held three-year terms. The pasha was assisted by janissaries (elite infantry units), led by an agha, or commander. Turkish was the official language, and the Ottomans excluded Arabs and Berbers from government posts. Around 1671, the title of dey began to be used by Ottoman leaders in Algiers, and, after 1689, the right to select the dey was passed to the divan, a council of ministers. Deys held a life term. Between 1671–1830 there were twenty-nine deys, many of whom were removed from power by assassination.6

The city of Algiers was divided into two distinct regions: the upper (private) city, called al-gabal or “the mountain,” and the lower (public) city, called al-wata or “the plains.” The upper city, known as the Casbah, was comprised of approximately fifty small neighborhoods. The lower part developed as an administrative, military, and commercial quarter, later known as the Marine Quarter.7 The whitewashed houses of the Casbah were built close to one another in what evolved into a dense urban quarter, reaching densities of two thousand people per hectare.8 The typical Casbah house did not have many exterior windows, but, rather, relied on a central courtyard for ventilation purposes.9 The houses varied in size from modest to palatial, all with similar planning. The entry hall, or Sqîfa in Arabic, created a bent-axis that kept the interior hidden even when the main door was opened. A courtyard or patio (wast al-dār), acted as the central element that vertically connected the dwelling and led to the rooms surrounding it. Richly patterned interiors contrasted strongly with the austere, white exteriors. Roof terraces were another standard element and managed to create a separate world above the streets, as the houses were closely connected to each other.10

Wealthy citizens of Algiers who lived within the city walls during the Ottoman period established country estates with large houses and grounds on the slopes of the

4. Metz, 18-19.

5. James McDougall, A History of Algeria (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 10.

6. Çelik, Urban Forms and Colonial Confrontations, 13; Metz, 19.

7. Çelik, Urban Forms and Colonial Confrontations, 13.

8. Çelik, Urban Forms and Colonial Confrontations, 97.

9. Federico Cresti, “Algiers in the Ottoman Period: The City and Its Population,” in The City in the Islamic World, ed. Salma K. Jayyusi, vol. 1 (Boston: Brill, 2008), 407–43.

10. Gwendolyn Peck, “The Casbah of Algiers: Cultural Heritage as a Political Tool” (master’s thesis, University of Virginia, 2016), 4.

Sahel, the ridge of hills above the bay, as the Romans had done before them. The elevated location was chosen to escape from the heat of the Algerian summer. Such an estate was known as a djnân (plural, djnâyan) and included ornamental green space as well as orchards, vegetable gardens, shaded courtyards and allées for walking, fountains, pools, and water courses. Wells on the property provided water for use in the home and to irrigate the grounds. The properties usually fell into one of two categories. They were either official summer residences used by the dey and his senior officers, or they were private residences belonging to rich merchants or privateers. The official residences included private quarters for the government official and his family, as well as spaces in which to conduct the business of state. At one time, the area on which Oued El Kilaï is located was part of the djnân of Ali Agha, a senior official in the administration of the last Ottoman ruler of Algiers. The property extended down the Sahel to the Bay of Algiers. Private villas were smaller than the official ones and more informal. They may not have included such features as the Sqîfa where visitors would wait until called to conduct their business.11

The djnâyan resembled, in form, the townhouses of the Casbah, but included buildings in addition to the main house, as well as larger grounds to accommodate agricultural and pleasure gardens. Multiple courtyards or galleries were built and separate terraced gardens cascaded down the hillsides. There might also be a guest house (douèra) and a guardhouse at the entrance to the property. Like townhouses, the main residence in a country house was organized around the wast al-dār or courtyard. The djnân residence incorporated passive construction techniques that helped keep the building cool in the summer. The thick, earthen brick or stone walls and tiled interior surfaces insulated the villa, and the villa’s open courtyard acted as a chimney, drawing the hot air up and away from the rooms opening around it. Octagonal domes that topped the k’bou (square plan rooms topped with domes opening off the main rooms) included

openings that further ventilated the interior rooms. Windows and doors were larger than those in the city, and the doors were mounted so that they could be opened flat against the wall, maximizing ventilation. The galleries shaded the rooms behind them. The houses were also oriented so that they took advantage of the breezes off the sea. An example of such a property is the Villa Abd-elTif, located southeast of the Oued El Kilaï and closer to the bay. Constructed in the middle of the seventeenth century in a wooded area on the hillside, it exemplifies the features of the Ottoman-period djnân. 12 (Figures 1.2.3 and 1.2.4)

French Colonization (1833–1962)

European countries had paid tributes to the privateering states in North Africa in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to protect their shipping. Engaged in warfare during much of this period, European nations were without the resources to sufficiently defend merchant vessels themselves. With the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the beginning of a period of relative peace, however, Algiers found itself facing an array of foes, including Spain, the Netherlands, Prussia, Russia, Denmark, and Naples. The United States negotiated a treaty with the dey in 1797 guaranteeing payment of $10 million over a dozen years for a promise that its commercial vessels would be left alone. Continued attacks on American merchant ships, however, led the United States, in an alliance with European powers, to engage in two early nineteenth-century conflicts, known as the Barbary Wars, to prevent piracy. In the second war, in 1815, American Commodore Stephen Decatur led a fleet of ten warships into the Bay of Algiers, captured several Algerian ships, and threatened the city. (Figure 1.2.5) He negotiated a treaty with the Algiers government, which the dey promptly repudiated after the American vessels had left. The following year, a fleet of British and Dutch ships bombarded Algiers and forced a treaty reimposing the conditions Decatur had negotiated and also agreeing to end the practice of enslaving Christians captured in raids.13

11. Christopher

12. L. Adli-Chebaiki and N. Chabbi-Chemrouk.

13. Metz, 21-22; Ross, “American Embassy Properties,” 9-11.

Ross, “American Embassy Properties in Algiers, Their Origins and History” (typescript), April 1991, US Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operations, 22; Malika Hocine and Naima Chabbi-Chemrouk, “Reuse of Djenane Abd-El-Tif, an Emblematic Islamic Garden in Algiers.” Journal of Islamic Architecture 3:3 (June 2015), 136.

“Vernacular Housing in Algiers: A Semantic and Passive Architecture.” International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics 10:2 (2015), 154-156.

1.2. Historical Background & Context / DCMR (cont’d)

France had conducted significant trade with western North Africa, known as the Maghreb, since the thirteenth century. The French imported leather and skins, beeswax, cumin, sugar, dried figs, and fleece from across the Mediterranean, and, over time, established commercial enterprises in Algeria run by French merchants. The decline in privateering in the nineteenth century led to a loss of the wealth the Algerian government needed for defense, as did Ottoman defeats elsewhere in Europe. North Africa was therefore vulnerable. At the same time, the French monarchy had been restored after Napoleon’s defeat, but remained unpopular and vulnerable to attack by other nations interested in colonization. To strengthen its own authority, the French government envisioned Algeria as a colony capable of absorbing the men and women in France made idle, and therefore susceptible to revolutionary ideas, by the poor economy. Colonists would produce raw materials to ship to France for conversion to finished goods for domestic and international markets.14

France used the occasion of a perceived insult to its consul by the dey as justification to blockade Algiers’ port in 1827. The blockade lasted three years but did not force Ottoman submission; the French then invaded, landing west of the city in June 1830. They captured the city in three weeks, and Hussein Dey, the last dey of Algiers, fled. The French did little to endear themselves to the Algerians during the invasion and later subjugation of the city, committing rape, looting, stealing from the state treasury, and desecrating mosques and cemeteries. Thirty thousand people were either killed or exiled in the first year of the war, and thousands of properties were confiscated. In 1834, France annexed the parts of the country it occupied. Settlers from southern Italy, Spain, and France, called colons (colonists) or, more popularly, pied noirs (black feet), poured in. The French managed to occupy most of the urban centers of Algiers and their surroundings after ten years of war; complete subjugation of the entire country took four times that long.15

When the French arrived, they found a dense, fortified city, full of public buildings and many monuments. The city was in good repair, despite the long naval blockade, and cosmopolitan; Algerian literacy was as high as that of France.16 As French planners began to reconceive Algiers to suit European ideas of order and beauty and to house the immigrants arriving in the city, the Casbah provided the greatest challenge. High population densities made relocation of a primarily residential area difficult. The concentration of densely packed old buildings made new construction and the cutting of new streets challenging without large-scale demolition. In addition, a romantic/ Orientalist appreciation of the aesthetic values of the buildings of the Casbah inspired an interest in preserving them.17 French poet and novelist Théophile Gautier commented in 1845 that the Casbah should be preserved “in all its original barbary,” while the Europeans should stick to the lower part, close to the harbor, because of their preference for “large streets . . . cartage . . . and commercial development.”18

Minimal interventions were made in the Casbah, and French planners in the 1830s looked to the lower city, the Marine Quarter, for redevelopment opportunities. They were especially concerned about housing military troops and cutting new arteries through the city to enable rapid maneuvers. French authorities confiscated houses, shops, and religious buildings for the purposes of constructing new buildings and streets. A new public square, Place de Chartres, was created by demolishing a mosque and a series of commercial buildings.19 French planners found the winding, narrow streets that characterized pre-invasion Algiers inefficient and aesthetically undesirable. They aimed to introduce a “rational” street system. In the early 1840s, a plan was developed to replace the Ottoman fortifications with large boulevards that encircled the Casbah. The occupying nation, however, was never able to accomplish the widespread reorganization of the street system they sought. By the 1830s, the population of Algiers had grown substantially, further hindering efforts

16. Çelik,

17. Çelik, Urban Forms and Colonial Confrontations, 26.

18. Théophile Gautier, quoted in Celik, Urban Forms and Colonial Confrontations, 26.

19. Çelik, Urban Forms and Colonial Confrontations, 27.

14. Mahfoud Bennoune, The Making of Contemporary Algeria, 1830-1987: Colonial Upheavals and Post-Independence Development (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 28-35; Metz, 21.

15. Metz, 21-24; Bennoune, 36-39.

Urban Forms and Colonial Confrontations, 19; Bennoune, 28.

Figure 1.2.3

The seventeenth-century Villa Abd-el-Tif possesses all the features of a typical djnân, including a principal residence and other buildings enclosing a courtyard, a riyādh or gallery, water features, a well, and a guest house. (Adli-Chebaiki and ChabbiChemrouk, “Vernacular Housing in Algiers”)

Figure 1.2.4

The open courtyard (here spelled west-ed dar) of the Villa Abd-el-Tif helped ventilate the rooms around it. (Adli-Chebaiki and Chabbi-Chemrouk, “Vernacular Housing in Algiers)

Figure 1.2.5

The United States fleet at Algiers, from H. Kimball’s 1816 book, The Naval Temple. (Wikimedia Commons)

1.2. Historical Background & Context / DCMR (cont’d)

The Mustapha Superieur neighborhood, as seen in an 1883 map. The current CMR and DCMR are located in the blue circle, the CMR near the top, within the V of roadways, and the DCMR below with “214” under it. (Glycines Library, Algiers, Plan of Algiers and Surroundings, revised 1883)

“Campagne Playfair” appears on the 1866 cadastral map of Algiers and its environs next to what is now the DCMR. (Algiers Land Registry Service, Commune of Mustapha, sheet 11, April 25, 1866)

Figure 1.2.6

Figure 1.2.7

to reorganize the city. Reports noted overcrowding in both the Marine Quarter and Casbah.20

While colonists arrived in Algiers looking for economic opportunity in the city and on agricultural properties, many Europeans and some Americans with greater resources visited the country, attracted to its healthy climate and perceived exoticism. They gravitated toward the djnâyan on the Sahel, where, since France had expelled many Turkish citizens from the region, and many of the Algerians who could afford such houses had emigrated, properties were available to rent or purchase. Djnâyan were bought and sold for residences or as speculative properties. Valuable materials (wood, iron, glazed tiles, marble and tuff columns) were salvaged from other houses and sold to be used in the construction of new buildings or the rehabilitation of existing djnâyan, leaving many estates in ruins. Providing easier access to the Sahel from the city and its harbor was a new road, built in 1833-1834 by French General Theophile Voirol. One of the first carriage roads from Algiers over the Sahel, it followed the path of what is now the Boulevard Souidani Boudjemaa. A commemorative column, the Colonne Voirol, was built at the intersection of the general’s road and the ridge road to commemorate the event. A “garden suburb” called Mustapha Supérieur grew up along Voirol’s road and the ridge road in what had earlier been an agricultural and livestock area. (Figure 1.2.6) The area at the eastern end of the ridge road, presumably where it intersected with Voirol’s road, became known as the Colonne Voirol neighborhood. El Biar, a neighborhood immediately adjacent to Mustapha Supérieur, also received its share of European and American seasonal residents.21

By 1860, doctors were sending many patients with pulmonary ailments to Algeria’s healthful climate. A nineteenth-century travel writer described Mustapha Supérieur as “well situated on the slopes of the hills south of Algiers amongst gardens and pine woods and commands extensive views; and being at a considerable

elevation above the sea, it has the great advantage of being fresher and more healthy than the town.”22 The elevation, more than 200 meters above sea level, provided relief from the oppressive summer heat of the city.23 The new immigrants to Mustapha Supérieur and El Biar quickly formed separate social groups according to nationality. Guidebooks, medical texts, and travelogues were written that circulated among wealthy residents of Great Britain and the United States, who were then inspired to visit. Anna Leigh Smith and three of her siblings came to Algiers from England in 1856. She married a French physician, Dr. Eugene Bodichon and purchased the property that is now the US Chief of Mission Residence, known as the Villa Montfeld, in 1866.24

Mustapha Supérieur and el-Biar became a November-toMay resort for rich British and American citizens by the 1860s. The Anglican Church thrived on donations of winter residents. In 1865, there were 1,500 British persons living in Algiers. Writing in the 1870s, one British winter resident wrote that “Algiers is being gradually taken possession of by the English.”25 Reflective of the population, a British club was built in the center of town.26 One of those residents was Lt. Colonel Robert Lambert Playfair, the British Consul General in Algiers from 1867 until 1897. In 1867, he bought a property covering 8.9 hectares not far from the Colonne Voirol along chemin Beaurepaire (today’s chemin Cheikh El Ibrahimi) that had been consolidated from two smaller parcels in 1844. Playfair was a prominent actor in the British community in the area, helping to found the Anglican church there. Although the date of purchase by Playfair may have been 1867, the name of the property was already Campagne Playfair by 1866, according to the cadastral map of Algiers and its environs of that year. (Figure 1.2.7) The house pictured in the map is now the US Deputy Chief of Mission Residence. Former Ambassador Christopher Ross, in his 1991 history of US diplomatic properties in Algiers, states that Playfair lived at an adjacent property, known as Sidi Alowi.27

20. Çelik, Urban Forms and Colonial Confrontations, 60.

21. Ross, “American Embassy Properties,” 7.

22. R. Lambert Playfair, Handbook for Travellers in Algeria and Tunis (London: John Murray, 1895), 106.

23. Martin Farr and Xavier Guégan, eds., The British Abroad Since the Eighteenth Century, Volume 1 (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave MacMillan, 2014), 222.

24. Ross, “American Embassy Properties,” 16-18, 24.

25. Farr and Guégan, 222.

26. Farr and Guégan, 222.

27. Ross, “American Embassy Properties,” 24.

The Anglo-American community thrived through the beginning of the twentieth century. Most of the Europeans and Americans that wintered or resided in Algiers built or renovated existing villas on the ridge or the slope, rather than living in hotels, which were mostly downtown until 1887.28 Nevertheless, at least a few hotels were built in Mustapha Supérieur. A Maltese businessman named Zammit converted a Moorish Revival villa into a hotel known as Villa Orientale. French and Algerian landlords eagerly welcomed the visitors and, in some cases, remodeled rental properties according to European architectural styles.29

The French government incorporated Mustapha Supérieur into the city of Algiers in 1904, beginning a decline in its popularity as a retreat that accelerated following World War I. Increased urbanization prompted many owners to sell their estates to French settlers.30 By the 1930s, the built fabric of the city climbed further into the surrounding hills. The late nineteenth-century pattern of Moorish Revival villas in gardens on the heights was replaced by much denser settlement patterns. The opening of transMediterranean air travel in 1931 made short stays easier and decreased the need for season-long visits. The worldwide Depression of the 1930s essentially ended the seasonal gatherings of wealthy Europeans and Americans in Algiers. Several of the French owners of these properties sold them to foreign diplomatic missions. France and the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics acquired Sahel djnâyan in this way, as did the United States when it purchased the Villa Montfeld in 1947.31

After World War II, Islamic immigration to Algiers increased substantially, putting pressure on the historic city. Bidonvilles squatters’ communities named for the gas barrels used to build walls for shelter proliferated. Previous urban planning undertaken by the French concentrated on the area along the coast the Casbah, the Marine Quarter, and the lands to the south. With the mid-twentieth-century increase in population, planners now contemplated extending denser development into

the ring of hills surrounding the coast. A 1948 plan would have changed the entire image of Algiers, according to urban historian Zeynep Çelik. “In contrast to the compact form of old Algiers, surrounded by vegetation on three sides, against a background of steep hills,” Çelik wrote of the plan, “the Algiers of the mid-twentieth century was [planned as] a sprawling city. It circled the entire amphitheater of the bay and extended into the hills, its built fabric broken up by random green zones. . . . The heights of the city and other areas not built on due to their difficult topography were now seen as inevitable sites for development.”32 New roadways would be established to connect the residential areas to employment centers. New housing and broad commuter drives were constructed in Algeria between 1954 and 1961, in the last years of French rule, but the plan as a whole was not implemented due to the Algerian War of Independence.33 The effect on the heights of Algiers over time was to make the area more urban than rural in character.

The Sahel after Algerian Independence (1962-Present)

For the most part, the French colons left or were expelled from Algeria after the country gained its independence, leaving a vacuum in administrative expertise and experience since the French had maintained control of those sectors of the government. The new government fiercely defended Algeria’s independence, and its socialist ideology was not open to western-style development. With its strongly centralized government, Algeria instituted Ordinance 66-102 soon after it took power, giving it the authority to appropriate bien vacants properties deemed to be abandoned by their owners. Titles to these properties passed to the state. By 1966, this process of nationalizing the bien vacants was complete. Many of them became state-run farms.34 The Algerian state came to make use of several of these properties around Algiers, establishing their own ministries in former djnâyan. The Algerian Ministry of Transportation is located northwest of the American properties in the Sahel, while the presidential palace, El Mouradia, stands to southeast.

28. Ross, “American Embassy Properties, 8.

29. Farr and Guégan, 223.

30. Ross, “American Embassy Properties, 10.

31. Çelik, 68.

32. Çelik, 80-81.

33. Çelik, 79-86.

34. Metz, 129-130, 153; Ross, “American Embassy Properties in Algiers,” 27-28.

1.2. Historical Background & Context

The primary character of the ridge on which the djnâyan stood former country estates of 2 or more hectares with residences, outbuildings, and gardens did not, therefore, change dramatically in the immediate aftermath of Algerian independence. The Sahel context, however, changed over time. Algeria evolved from a colonial economy based on sending raw materials to France to a socialist economy relying to a great extent on large industries, including oil and steel production. This alteration drew many rural residents to the city seeking employment, resulting in a continuous increase in the urban population. The number of residents in metropolitan Algiers has increased from approximately 500,000 in 1950 to 2.9 million in 2022, according to numbers from the United Nations.35 And while the Algerian government attempted to plan this growth by following the 1948 French plan before undertaking revised plans in 1976 and 1988, political upheavals, economic problems, and social changes have negated their impact. The suburbs have grown erratically and sometimes illegally, with a resulting loss of parkland and haphazard development in the hills surrounding the old city. The historical perspective of two- and three-story white villas peeping out from green wooded hillsides has largely changed.36 The terrorist activities that began around the world in the 1970s and 1980s also resulted in fortified diplomatic compounds, further separating properties like the Villa Oued El Kilaï from its neighbors and the larger urban context and diminishing views of the djnâyan along the ridge roads.37

INFLUENCES ON ALGIERS ARCHITECTURE IN THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES

Architecture in Algiers during the Ottoman Period

When buildings such as Villa Oued El Kilaï were constructed during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Algiers was a provincial capital of the Ottoman Empire. The city was ruled from a distance, however, and gained increasing autonomy as the years passed. As a

result, multiple influences came into play in the design of Algerian buildings. One influence derived from the architecture of the Iberian Peninsula, developed over the 700-year course of Islamic rule in what are now Spain and Portugal. This architecture itself evolved from a variety of sources. Marianne Barrucand and Achim Bednorz describe it as “a fusion of Visigothic, Romano-Iberian, RomanoSyrian, Byzantine, and Arabic elements” that formed a new style.38 The architecture of the Islamic area of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula has come to be called “Moorish,” derived from the Greek word mauros, meaning dark.39

One of the most influential examples of Moorish architecture was the Alhambra, a palace and fortress built on a high plateau outside the city of Granada, Spain. (Figure 1.2.8) Historian Robert Hillenbrand describes the Alhambra as “the most fully preserved medieval Islamic palace to survive and the undisputed masterpiece of western Islamic art.”40 Constructed originally as a small fortress in 889, the building was expanded over the following centuries to contain both a fortress and palace for Muslim sultans in Spain.41 The palace included two courtyards. One, the Court of Lions, was named for the twelve marble lions that supported an alabaster basin at its center. The courtyards were surrounded by horseshoearched colonnades. Muqarnas (carved stucco ornament) and interwoven arabesques decorated the arches.42

As has been noted, several elements of the design of houses in Algiers during this period, both in the Casbah and in the djnâyan located in the hills, were based on traditional approaches that evolved to combat climatic conditions in North Africa. These include the use of a central courtyard or patio, known as the wast al-dār literally the center of the house to organize the interior spaces, provide light, and assist in cooling the house. Muslims on the Iberian Peninsula and Romans across their empire combined courtyards with residential buildings to accomplish these same goals. The courtyard is therefore a great example of the multiple historical influences shaping

35. “Algeria Metro Area Population, 1950-2023,” https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/20006/algiers/population, accessed January 8, 2023.

36. Çelik, 79-80; Azzeddine Bellout, “Monitoring Settlements Growth and Development in Algiers City Eastern Area,” February 17, 2021, Research Square website, https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-187885/v1; accessed January 8, 2023; Edward Karabenick, “A Postcolonial Rural Landscape: The Algiers Sahel,” Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers 53 (1991), 98-99.

37. Loeffler, 240-245.

38. Barrucand, Marianne, and Achim Bednorz. Moorish Architecture in Andalusia (London: Taschen, 2007).

39. Barrucand and Bednorz, 15-18; Adli-Chebaiki and Chabbi-Chemrouk. “Vernacular Housing in Algiers,” 154; Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom, The Art and Architecture of Islam, 1250-1800 (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1996, 251, 255.

40. Hillenbrand, 452.

41. Hillenbrand, 452.

42. Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabelle Hyman, Architecture from Prehistory to Postmodernism (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 1986), 219.

Figure 1.2.8

The Court of the Lions at the Alhambra, 13th-14th centuries. (Wikimedia Commons)

Figure 1.2.9

Short wood logs above column capitals provided earthquake-resistant flexibility in Algiers construction. (Abdessemed-Foufa and Benouar, “Seismo-resistant construction techniques”)

Figure 1.2.10

The Dar Mustapha Pacha (ca. 1798) displays the decorative approach of Moorish architecture. (Algeria: Palaces and Splendid Residences: Zaki Bouzid Editions, 2014)

Figure 1.2.11

Engraving of an Egyptian saqiya (also called a noria), circa 1875. (E.O. Lami, Dictionnaire encyclopédique et biographique de l'industrie et des arts industriels)

1.2. Historical Background & Context /

Algiers’ architecture. Numbered among passive cooling techniques practiced in Algiers were thick, earthen brick or stone walls and tiled interior surfaces as insulation, vented domes in the ancillary rooms (k’bou) to draw warmer air out of the interior, and exterior galleries in the wast al-dār that shaded the rooms ranged around the interior court. Vines trained on pergolas, plantings in pots in the wast al-dār, and fountains also represented traditional cooling techniques.43

Houses built in Algiers after 1716 when a devastating earthquake destroyed 200 houses in the Casbah, killed 20,000 people, and damaged the Great Mosque and properties in the countryside incorporated seismic tremor-resistant building techniques. In general, this construction utilized two types of material in various locations that provided the flexibility needed when earthquakes shook and distorted buildings, while also providing the rigidity needed under normal circumstances. Frequently, this meant the use of wood members within masonry structures that allowed for building movement.44 Logs were laid horizontally within the masonry walls, meeting at the corners to provide for shifting during tremors. Wood beams were also anchored into opposing walls (such as the arcade surrounding an interior court and the walls opposite) that lent flexibility and strength to both walls. In a practice apparently peculiar to Algiers, three short logs were placed between layers of brickwork above a column capital, again allowing for movement during an earthquake, thereby damping the twisting of walls. (Figure 1.2.9) Wood in combination with masonry was also used in window frames and lintels and in the construction of floors.45

Solid perimeter walls, indirect access to the interior, small windows, interior courtyards all these features created an inward focused house.46 This practice, common throughout the Islamic world beginning in the medieval period, sought to protect the privacy of the family. Moorish residential architecture in Algiers contrasted

whitewashed exterior walls with little ornament against richly decorated interior spaces, full of color and intricate ornamentation. Interior surfaces were rarely left in a natural state and were enriched with color and shape from mosaic, tile, or plaster, using calligraphy, geometry, and stylized foliate forms. (Figure 1.2.10) The decoration was usually contained in rectangular or square panels or limited to framing bands. Characteristic repetition of patterned decoration could be found in tile wainscot around the lower portion of a room’s walls, floors, friezes above an arcade in general, any flat, otherwise unadorned surface. Light and shadow were used to enliven flat, monochrome walls shadow lines created with niches and their slightly recessed outlines, slight setbacks within walls, and plaster work on the soffits and spandrels of arches. Glossy glazed tiles reflected light. Water participated in the use of light as ornament glittering from the sun in an interior or exterior courtyard, while also helping to cool the space. The sound of the fountain appealed to yet another sense.47

Islamic civilization placed a high value on gardens; the Qu’ran describes Paradise as a garden. Villas in the countryside provided the opportunity to emulate paradise. As built in Algiers during the Ottoman period, gardens included many of the features described in the Qu’ran: fountains, aromatic plants, running streams, shade trees, fruits, flowers, paths for leisurely walks.48 Gardens on earth, of course, had worldly purposes as well. They provided food for the families that spent the warm months there. Orchards and farm fields, tended by laborers that may have included captives from privateering raids, could be found on the djnâyan, and animals powered the noria (waterwheels) that drew water from wells or springs. (Figure 1.2.11) Some of the wealthier djnân owners combined their country retreats with profit-making ventures, buying a large farm on which to build a country house that also produced fruits and vegetables to be sold at market. Small or medium-sized farms also coexisted with the summer houses of city dwellers.49

43. Adli-Chebaiki and Chabbi-Chemrouk, “Vernacular Housing in Algiers,” 154-156; Todd Willmert, “Alhambra Palace Architecture: An Environmental Consideration of its Inhabitation,” Muqarnas 27 (2010), 157-188.

44. Books and journal articles reviewed for the HSR use both “cedar” and “thuja” to refer to the type or types of wood used in Algerian construction. Both are coniferous trees, but cedar trees belong to the Pinaceae (pine) family, while thuja (also spelled “thuya”) belongs to the Cupressaceae (cypress) family. There is a type of cedar tree (Cedrus atlantica, or Atlas cedar) that is native to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and Algeria, and also a thuja species (Tetraclinis articulate, or Barbary thuja) native to the same region. It is not known which of the species was used in Algerian architecture or if both were.

45. Amina Abdessemed-Foufa and Dijillali Benouar, “Seismo-resistant construction techniques in the Kasbah of Algiers,” Vies de Villes [?], 57-60, reduced version of article published in European Earthquake Engineering Journal 2:5 (2000) 2-29.

46. G. Michell, Architecture of the Islamic World (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979), 193-199, https://archive.org/details/01isart/mode/2up, accessed 10.2.22.

47. Michell, 144-164.

48. Hocine and Chabbi-Chemrouk, 137.

49. Algeria: Palaces and Splendid Residences ([?]: Zaki Bouzid Editions, 2014), 27.

Figure 1.2.12

Paul Lapra’s nineteenth-century Orientalist painting of a djnân’s wast al-dār, from the Musée National des Beaux-Arts. (Algeria: Palaces and Splendid Residences: Zaki Bouzid Editions, 2014)

1.2. Historical Background & Context

Due to the topography of the Sahel, most of the djnâyan combined small flat areas with sloping ground. Ravines cut through the properties, adding topographical variety to the general cascade of the land toward the sea. Near the residence, land was often terraced and contained within walls, with additional planted land beyond. The design of the djnân created a careful transition from the house, with its own garden-like space in the wast al-dār, to the productive landscape outside the walls. An exterior courtyard often lay just beyond the façade of the residence, and a riyādh (an arcaded gallery or loggia) and roof terraces provided sheltered views of the gardens, orchards, and vegetable plots, as well as the hillside and the sea beyond. A k’bou on the garden side of the house usually contained direct access from the house to the terraced garden on the first floor, a window overlooking the landscape on the second floor, and terrace on the roof. Pergolas and the canopies over the entrances were frequently wreathed with flowering vines, blurring the distinction between building and landscape. Both the exterior courtyard and the terrace might have a fountain, and fragrant flowers and hedges were common. Trees might include palm, pine, cedar, cypress, eucalyptus, and bamboo. Jasmine, rosemary, and thyme, as well as orange blossoms, scented the air. Roses, bougainvillea, honeysuckle, mimosa, and other flowers grew in beds near the house, on the terraces, and on trellises and pergolas. Hedges marked the perimeter boundaries. They might consist of closely planted bushes, shrubs, or small trees such as myrtle, hawthorn, aloe, or Barbary figs.50

Moorish Revival Architecture

After the French conquest of Algiers, Europeans and Americans who had the wherewithal to travel and wished to escape cold, damp winters, either for reasons of health or for leisure, flocked to the city and its temperate climate. Seventy thousand British citizens visited the country annually, in addition to Americans, French, and other nationalities. Many of those who wintered regularly in Algiers purchased properties at bargain prices from the French government or from Algerians forced into exile and

brought their own ideas about architecture to the Sahel. This especially affected the internal layout of houses. The visitors, however, were often deeply affected by the exotic aspects of the existing architecture and landscape and saw no reason to replace its decorative motifs with imitations of the buildings of their homeland. This interest in and appreciation of the art, architecture, language, and history of what was broadly defined as “the east” meaning Asia and the Middle East, but also North Africa — is often subsumed into an art, literature, and cultural category known as Orientalism. It began as early as the Renaissance and continued through the first part of the twentieth century. During the nineteenth century, painters from many nations came to Algiers to record their impressions of the exotic people, costumes, and customs of the locals. Eugène Delacroix and Henri Matisse were among the French painters to visit just after the invasion on part of Delacroix, early in the twentieth century for Matisse. Americans John Singer Sargent and Frederick Arthur Bridgeman both arrived in the 1870s. The exotic, mysterious, and sensual aspects of the scenes formed the basis of many of the paintings, often minimizing the individuality of the persons and situations depicted, as well as a denigration of their sophistication, according to critics. Figure 1.2.12). In his book Orientalism, Edward Said, a Palestinian-American professor at Columbia University, saw in the romanticizing of “the East” a persistent prejudice that helped justify colonizing its people.51

In architecture, “homage” to native buildings could take the form of restoring existing Ottoman-period djnâyan, as was the case with the Villa Oued El Kilaï, or creating new designs using the forms of the Algerian villa — and often its actual materials, salvaged from other villas or townhouses demolished for new construction to create new homes for Europeans wintering in the country.52 The new construction grafted architectural details common to buildings constructed during the Ottoman period to European floor plans and room distribution. Moorish Revival buildings were constructed as residences, but the style was also used for public buildings in the early twentieth century. The practice did not necessarily

50. L. Chebaiki-Adli, and N. Chabbi-Chemrouk, “Moorish Architectural Syntax and the Reference to Nature: A Case Study of Algiers,” Eco-Architecture V (2014), 545; Algeria: Palaces and Splendid Residences, 43-45; Hocine and Chabbi-Chemrouk, 135.

51. M.C. Thomas, "Orientalism." Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/science/Orientalism-cultural-field-of-study, accessed January 9, 2023; John MacKenzie, Orientalism: History, Theory and the Arts (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995), 62-67.

52. Algeria: Palaces and Splendid Residences, 28.

Figure 1.2.13

Illustration of plancher à voûtains (vaulted floors) from a 1913 French agricultural encyclopedia. (Wikimedia Commons)

Figure 1.2.14

Room in Villa Montfeld identified as a “Moorish café,” 1938. (Vidal-Bué, Villas et Palais d’Alger)

1.2. Historical Background & Context

reproduce traditional building techniques, although they may have been clad in traditional materials. One of the construction methods in common use in new buildings constructed during this period was known as plancher à voûtains vaulted floors. The technique employed iron or steel “I” beams as floor joists connected with low vaults of solid or hollow bricks which landed on the flat surface of the beams. (Figure 1.2.13) Floors were laid on top of the vaults and, since the technique was not employed in traditional Algerian architecture, a flat ceiling was often applied to the underside to hide the modern method. This means of constructing floors had begun to be used widely in France in the middle of the nineteenth century to exploit the potential new methods of producing iron and steel. It continued to be used in France until World War II.53 While the precise dating of its use in Algeria is not known, it is assumed that was introduced not long after it began to be used across the Mediterranean and continued for the same period of time. It is referred to by current architectural historians and preservation specialists in Algeria as “French construction.”

The 70,000 British that wintered in Algiers each year in the last half of the nineteenth century displayed a taste for the style, and one of their own has been looked on as an early practitioner. Benjamin Bucknall (1833–1895) began his architectural career in Great Britain. In 1851, he started work for the architect Charles Hansom (1817–1888) in Bristol. Hansom designed a number of Catholic churches, including Woodchester Priory Church and Convent Chapel in Stroud and St. John’s in Bath. Bucknall established himself as a residential and ecclesiastical architect in the 1850s and 1860s, designing many houses and churches in England and Wales, primarily in the Gothic Revival and Romanesque Revival styles. For unknown health reasons, Bucknall went to Algiers for the first time in 1876–77. He settled there permanently in 1878. Bucknall became friends with the English linguist Charles Cayley, who introduced him to his influential circle of friends wintering in Algeria. The architect quickly developed a client base among this group and undertook

serious study of the Ottoman period architecture there. Some of his work involved the restoration or renovation of houses of the period in Mustapha Supérieur and El-Biar, including the Villa Montfeld, now the residence of the American ambassador.54 (Figure 1.2.14)

The architects of Moorish Revival buildings in Algiers, and especially in the Sahel, were likely to have been trained in Europe, given French command over such positions in Algeria at this time. Builders, artisans, and contractors were likely to be colons as well. A colleague of and collaborator with Bucknall that fits this description was Barthélemy Sébastien Vidal (18511922), the son of a master mason who became a contractor in Algiers, Joachim Vidal (1815-1880). Vidal worked with Bucknall at the Villa Montfeld, and one source indicates that the British architect bequeathed his papers to the builder.55 The Vidals were members of a Jewish family of architects and builders, according to Ambassador Ross, who were active into the 1920s and were involved in the building or restoration of many of the villas in Mustapha Supérieur and el-Biar.56

An architect of a later generation active in Algiers and involved in restoration of Ottoman period houses and construction of Neo-Moorish buildings was Georges Adrien Auguste Guiauchain (1840–1912). He was born in Décize, France, about halfway between Paris and Lyon, the son of Pierre Auguste Guiauchain (1806–1875). Both father and son were educated at the École des BeauxArts and both rose to the position of chief architect of public buildings in Algiers. In addition to his public work, Georges Guiauchain designed houses for English visitors in el-Biar and Mustapha Supérieur and restored the djnân Mustapha Raïs for the British businessman John Bell.57 He also built an orphanage for girls on the remains of an Ottoman period building in 1889, which was transformed into a hotel, the Saint-Georges, by his son, Jacques. Georges Guiauchain published a book about the history of Algerian architecture in 1905.58

53. Antoine Le Bas, Architectures de Brique en Île-de-France, 1850-1950 (Paris: Somogy, 2014), 112-114.

54. Algeria: Palaces and Splendid Residences, 29-31; Richard Barton, “Another Bucknall Church – Saint George’s Roman Catholic Church, Taunton,” available at https://btsarnia.org/2016/05/31/st-georges-catholic-church-taunton/, accessed May 14, 2020; Charles Wethered, “The Late Mr. Benjamin Bucknall,” Stroud News, December 2, 1895, available at https://www.stroudlocalhistorysociety.org.uk/people-places/people/bucknall/, accessed May 18, 2020.

55. “History of the construction of the city of Algiers by Guy Simon-Laborde,” https://jeanyvesthorrignac-fr.translate.goog/crbst_98.html?_x_tr_sl=fr&_x_tr_ tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc, accessed January 10, 2023.

56. Algeria: Palaces and Splendid Residences, 31; Ross, “American Embassy Properties in Algiers, 17.

57. The United States acquired Mustapha Raïs in 1948. It was later exchanged with the Algerian government for the Villa Oued El Kilaï.

58. “Guiauchain, Georges,” biographie, Archives Nationales (France), https://agorha.inha.fr/ark:/54721/bb99e7d5-2b38-4c89-86d4-27b75f596b2d, accessed October 11, 2022.

Historical Background & Context / DCMR (cont’d)

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN ALGERIA AND THE UNITED STATES

Privateering and Diplomacy during the Ottoman Period

Disputes over privateering shaped the early diplomatic relationship between Algeria and the United States. Beginning in 1785, many American ships, crews, and cargoes fell into the hands of the Algerines (residents of Algeria) and other corsairs from the Barbary Coast of North Africa. From 1785 to 1793, Algiers alone captured at least fifteen American ships. In 1795, the United States and Algeria signed the Treaty of Peace and Amity, which committed the Ottoman dey of Algiers to ensuring the safe passage of American ships. Formal US consular relations with Algiers began with Joel Barlow’s presentation of his credentials to Dey Hassan on March 4, 1796. The American naval hero John Paul Jones had been appointed consul on June 2, 1792, but died before taking up his post. In 1812, the corsairs of Algiers demanded that Dey Hadj Ali Pacha declare war and renew the seizure of American treasures. The US consul was ordered to leave Algeria and at least one American ship was seized. The Algerian War, one of the Barbary Wars fought against privateers in the Mediterranean followed.

The end of the War of 1812 with Great Britain allowed the United States to focus its efforts on resolving the dispute with Algeria. Commodore Stephen Decatur was sent with American naval forces to seek or enforce a solution. Decatur defeated the corsair commander Raïs Hamidou in the Straits of Gibraltar and later threatened Algiers from its bay. After negotiating a new treaty and having it repudiated by the dey, the British and Dutch navies restored the terms of the treaty in 1816, when a new Treaty of Peace and Amity was signed, ending Algerian corsair attacks on American ships permanently.59

The US Consulate during the French Occupation of Algeria

David Porter was appointed US consul in Algiers at the time of the French invasion of the city. When he heard of the French attack, however, Porter determined not to take up his post immediately, but reported to the chargé d’affaires at Istanbul. No US consul arrived in Algiers until 1835, when George F. Brown took up the post. From that date until 1924, a series of consuls carried out the duties of the American mission, with the exception of 1876 to 1881, when Congress failed to appropriate funds to keep the post open. In 1924, a growing workload prompted the Department of State to begin assigning principal officers the rank of consul general. Following the invasion of France in 1940, Algeria fell under control of Nazi Germany. On November 8, 1942, Allied forces launched a major offensive in North Africa codenamed Operation Torch. Led by General Dwight Eisenhower, the Allies retook Morocco along with Algeria, liberating the countries along the coast. During the war, the United States opened and closed consulates in Bône (Annaba) and Oran (Ouahran). In recognition of the Algiers’s growing importance, the consulate was formally elevated to a consulate general in September 1944.60

Algerian nationalism began to gain a stronger foothold among the native populace during and after World War I. New leaders emerged from the Muslim residents who had fought for France in the war or contributed by working in factories aiding the war effort. They glimpsed a higher standard of living than their own, a standard that was denied them under normal circumstances because they were neither Christian nor of French heritage. The first group to call for Algerian independence, was le Federation des Elus Indigenes (Federation of Elected Natives, FEI), which formed in 1926 France for North African workers living there. Led by religious informers and teachers, as well as those who had been involved in World War I, many Algerians of the Islamic faith began the quest for independence in earnest immediately following World War II.61

59. Christopher Ross, “The United States Mission in Algeria: A Historical Sketch,” April 1991, 6-10, https://dz.usembassy.gov/wp-content/uploads/ sites/236/2017/04/US-Mission-to-Algeria-A_Historical_Sketch.pdf, accessed September 30, 2022; US Department of State, Office of the Historian, “A Guide to the United States’ History of Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations, by Country, since 1776: Algeria,” US Department of State website, https://history.state.gov.countries/algeria, accessed September 23, 2022.

60. Ross, “The United States Mission in Algeria: A Historical Sketch,” 13, 18-20; US Department of State, Office of the Historian, “A Guide to the United States’ History of Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations, by Country, since 1776: Algeria.” 61. Metz, 34-36

1.2. Historical Background & Context / DCMR (cont’d)

The Algerian War of Independence began in 1954, when the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) began a guerrilla campaign against the French government in the country. The FLN sought the end to French colonial control and diplomatic recognition by the United Nations in order to establish a sovereign Algerian state.62 Most of the fighting in the war occurred in the Algerian countryside, particularly along the country’s borders. Algiers, however, was subject to a significant amount of warfare. FLN fighters launched a series of violent urban attacks in the city that came to be known as the Battle of Algiers (195657).63 Although France regained the city, public opinion in France turned against the war and new French President Charles de Gaulle became convinced that French control of Algeria was untenable. De Gaulle announced in 1959 that “self-determination” was necessary for Algeria. After several years of negotiations, France declared a cease-fire in March 1962 and withdrew from Algeria. On July 5, 1962, Algeria proclaimed its independence.64

The US government had recognized France’s full and exclusive dominion in North Africa during the twentieth century. American policy makers after World War II era were intent on maintaining an Atlantic alliance against the growing threat of the Soviet Union. US officials in the State Department worried that a retreat of European power in North Africa would create opportunities for communist infiltration.65 Algiers was one of a number of cities in North Africa where the State Department planned new construction to show its commitment to Western influence in Africa. This approach was also used in Eastern Europe and in India.66 Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower supported France in the war for Algerian independence. Despite being initially reticent, the Eisenhower administration provided military equipment for France to carry out its mission against Algerian fighters.67

On July 2, 1957, Senator John F. Kennedy took a bold stance against existing American policy when he publicly denounced French colonialism in Algeria. He criticized the Eisenhower administration for its “head-inthe-sand” policy of refusing to condemn French colonialism and supplying weapons to France. The battle against communism in the “Third World” would be lost, Kennedy warned, unless the West recognized that “the worldwide struggle against imperialism, the sweep of nationalism, is the most potent force in foreign affairs today.”68 Despite his earlier stance, Kennedy, as president, largely deferred to French president Charles de Gaulle on matters related to Algeria. At the same time, prominent advisers to Kennedy, including Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Mennen Williams, pushed for American communication with the FLN at higher levels of the US government.69

These policy battles took place at a time when United States diplomatic facilities in Algeria were threatened and came under attack. On July 4, 1957, a bomb, which US officials described as “amateurish,” exploded by the consular door on the third floor of the US consul general’s office at Rue Michelet 119. The damage to the building was considered superficial and the bomber made no attempt to enter the building.70 A second bomb exploded at the consular office in April 1958. The building was not damaged, but a cleaning woman was injured.71 On January 20, 1961, a plastic explosive charge was placed against the entrance to the consul general office, but the bomb did not explode. The incident coincided with the inauguration of Kennedy as the new US president. Political tracts condemning Kennedy and supporting the Algerian FLN arrived in the mail at the consulate shortly after the incident.72 A few months later, in April, a bomb exploded outside the consulate. The bomb caused “heavy material damage and a police officer was injured.73

62. “Algerian War,” Encyclopedia Britannica, available at https://www.britannica.com/event/Algerian-War, accessed May 14, 2020.

63. “Algerian War,” Encyclopedia Britannica, available at https://www.britannica.com/event/Algerian-War, accessed May 14, 2020.

64. Christopher Hitchens, “A Chronology of the Algerian War of Independence,” The Atlantic (November 2006), available at https://www.theatlantic.com/ magazine/archive/2006/11/a-chronology-of-the-algerian-war-of-independence/305277/, accessed May 14, 2020.

65. Yahia H. Zoubir, “The United States, the Soviet Union and Decolonization of the Maghreb, 1945-62,” Middle Eastern Studies 31, no. 1 (January 1995): 61.

66. Jane C. Loeffler, The Architecture of Diplomacy (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2011), 38-39.

67. Zoubir, 66.

68. Jeffrey A. Lefebvre, “Kennedy's Algerian Dilemma: Containment, Alliance Politics and the 'Rebel Dialogue,'” Middle Eastern Studies 35, no. 2 (April 1999): 61. 69. Martin S. Alexander and John F. V. Keiger, eds., France and the Algerian War, 1954-62: Strategy, Operations and Diplomacy (New York: Routledge, 2012), 146.

70. Clark to Secretary of State, July 4, 1957, RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Central Decimal Files, 1955-59, Box 704.

71. Clark to Secretary of State, April 17, 1958, RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Central Decimal Files, 1955-59, Box 704.

72. American Consulate General, Algiers, to Department of State, January 27, 1961, RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Central Decimal Files, 1960-1963, Box 297.

73. Gavin, U. S. Embassy, Paris, to Secretary of State, April 6, 1961, RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Central Decimal Files, 1960-1963, Box 297.

1.2. Historical Background & Context / DCMR (cont’d)

US Diplomatic Relations with Algeria after the War of Independence

Despite the violence directed at US embassy personnel in Algiers, the two countries commenced formal diplomatic relations approximately three months after Algeria gained its independence. The American consulate general in Algiers was raised to embassy status on September 29, 1962, with William J. Porter serving as chargé d’affaires. Influencing State Department decisions regarding the diplomatic mission in Algeria at this time was the continuing aim of containing Soviet influence around the world, especially in Algeria, which had a socialist government sympathetic with the USS.R. One of the State Department’s lesser known goals during the 1950s was to secure air transit and landing rights for a route from Casablanca across North Africa, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia, ultimately reaching Manila in the Philippines. Algiers was one of the cities included in that air route, which was designed to link American commands in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The United States planned building projects in twelve cities along the route, including Algiers.74

The Architectural Advisory Panel, a board of three wellregarded architects in private practice, recommended architects to the State Department’s Foreign Buildings Office, which oversaw design and construction of American diplomatic buildings, and reviewed the projects in development. In 1957, the panel reviewed fourteen such projects, including a new embassy in Algiers. Designed by San Francisco architect John Lyon Reid (1906-1982), the project was never built, due either to lack of funds or unrest in the country where it was to be constructed. About half of the projects planned along the air route were never built.75

Delay in construction in Algiers likely seemed inevitable in the 1950s due to the country’s war with France. Continuing instability might have been the reason that it was ultimately scrapped. The fledgling nation led a chaotic

early existence, with its premier deposed in 1965 and a constitution delayed until 1976, all the while trying to establish a state-run corporate economy. The two countries were initially at odds on ideological grounds, while continued American support for France and Israel also became barriers to closer relations. Algeria severed diplomatic ties with the United States on June 6, 1967, in the wake of the Arab-Israeli war, and the rift lasted until November 12, 1974. By the late 1970s, however, the two nations became steady trading partners, with the United States regularly purchasing Algerian oil while offering the technical expertise that the North African nation needed.76

In January 1979, Islamic fundamentalists led by the Ayatollah Khomeini deposed the Shah of Iran, a longtime ally of the United States. In the wake of the successful revolution and instigated by President Carter’s decision that October to allow the Shah to travel to the United States for medical treatment, a group of Iranian students seized the US embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, and detained fifty-two Americans. Initial diplomatic negotiations for the hostages’ release in early 1980 failed, as did a rescue mission by the US military in April 1980. Later in the year, the Department of State learned through the German embassy in Iran that the ayatollah had authorized a high-ranking Iranian official to open discussions. President Carter selected Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher to lead the American negotiating team. Iraq’s invasion of Iran shortly negotiations began in September put a halt to the talks, and negotiations only resumed after Algeria agreed to act as a neutral intermediary represented by foreign minister Mohammed Ben Yahia. Christopher’s first trip to Algiers was on November 9, followed by meetings in Washington, and a second trip to Algiers in early January 1981. During both stays in Algiers, Christopher and his team resided at the Villa Montfeld. The United States and Iran completed negotiations for the hostages’ release on January 19, 1981, which was signified by the signing of the Algiers Accords. The hostages were released the following day, bringing an end to the 444-day-long crisis.77

74. Loeffler, 38-39.

75. Loeffler, 162, 282.

58-61, 229-230;

76. Metz,

“A Guide to the United States’ History of Recognition, Diplomatic and Consular Relations, by Country, since 1776: Algeria,” US Department of State, Office of the Historian. US Department of State website, https://history.state.gov/countries/algeria, accessed September 23, 2022.

77. Warren Christopher, Chances of a Lifetime: A Memoir (New York: Scribner, 2001), 103-04, 108-09.

1.2. Historical Background & Context / DCMR (cont’d)

In 1989, Algeria adopted a new government that allowed the formation of political parties other than the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN), which had ruled the singleparty government since indepence. One of the most successful new parties was the militant Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). Facing an FIS victory in balloting for the National People’s Assembly, the army cancelled elections in January 1992, and the country descended into civil war. For the next ten years, the political landscape was dominated by violence and terrorism known as the “Black Decade,” during which many Algerians died at the hands of illegal Islamic groups as well as the state security services.78

In 1999, Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected president of Algeria and held the office until his resignation in 2019. Early during his term, the government focused on restoring security and stability to the country. In 2001, President Bouteflika became the first Algerian president to visit the White House since 1985. This and subsequent meetings with US officials were a demonstration of the growing relationship between the United States and Algeria. Today, Algeria and the United States maintain a strong diplomatic partnership, with Algeria playing a constructive role in promoting regional security.79

78. Department of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, “Background Note: Algeria,” available at https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/8005. htm#relations.

79. Department of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, “Background Note: Algeria,” available at https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/8005. htm#relations; Department of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, “US Relations with Algeria,” available at https://www.state. gov/u-s-relations-with-algeria/.

Detail from Figure 1.3.19

1.3 Chronology of Development & Use / DCMR

DEVELOPMENT OF THE DCMR SITE DURING THE OTTOMAN PERIOD (EARLY 1500s–1830)

The countryside beyond Algiers’ city walls was a green and fertile landscape in the three hundred-year Ottoman period of rule in North Africa, from the early sixteenth century to the early nineteenth. Hills, valleys, ravines, and numerous springs and streams characterized the topography, which had been enhanced with public fountains and a sophisticated irrigation system composed of norias, conduits, and basins. By the late seventeenth century, members of the ruling class, as well as merchants and successful privateers, had begun building djnâyan summer residences set amidst large gardens along the ridges and slopes of the Algerian heights. These country houses, like the villas of Renaissance Italy, offered their owners an escape from the crowds, noise, and heat of the city and an opportunity to experience nature and wildlife. The fertile land produced fresh fruits and vegetables for the family, their guests, and servants. The djnâyan houses might be palatial or modest, depending on the owners’ means.

(Figure 1.3.1) By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the fahs, as the countryside was known, had been developed with farms, fruit plantations, and the country houses and pleasure gardens of the Algerian elite.1

“Algiers, as discovered from the sea, resembles in form and color a ship’s topsail, spread out upon a green field,” according to William Shaler, US Consul General in Algiers from 1815 to 1828, “and, with its surrounding hilly and well cultivated territory, thickly studded with white buildings, several of which are magnificent edifices, develops, on approach, one of the most agreeable views on the shores of the Mediterranean.”2

The Ottoman Core of the Residence

The earliest construction that is part of the current residence of the United States Deputy Chief of Mission, known as Villa Oued El Kilaï since the late nineteenth century, was one of the djnâyan built in the fahs during the Ottoman period. A painted tile plaque at the entrance to the house provides a construction date of 1111 in the Hijiri, or Islamic, calendar (1700 CE) and indicates that the builder was Ahmed Ben Mohammed. It is likely, however, that the plaque was salvaged from another property and reused at the villa. Records for the Oued El Kilaï go back to 1831, the first year of French colonial rule. Commentators on the property reviewed for the historic structure report agree that the original parts of the villa date to the eighteenth century. Former US Ambassador to Algeria Christopher Ross postulated that the house was at one time part of a larger property belonging to Ali Agha, a senior military officer of the last dey of Algiers, Hüseyin bin Hüseyin. Prior to the end of Ottoman rule, however, the property seems to have no longer been in Ali Agha’s hands, since the first French owners leased and then purchased two properties from other Algerian owners, which were combined in 1844 to form the tract that is the basis for today’s DCMR and US Embassy property.3

The consensus on the Ottoman origins of the house and gardens rests on multiple factors. First, the layout of the house follows the familiar Algerine formula for djnân residences — a multi-story, more or less square-plan building organized around an open courtyard (the wast al-dār, today called the atrium), with an entrance protected by two sqâyaf (vestibules), and an additional exterior courtyard. Buildings, riyādh (loggias), and walls enclose the courtyards, providing protected spaces, free from intrusion, which were characteristic of residential construction in both the city and the countryside during

1. Nacereddine Saidouni, L’Algérois rural à la fin de l’époque ottomane (1791-1830), (Beirut, Lebanon, Dar al-Gharb al-islami, 2001), 17-19, 67-74, translated by S. Chergui; N. Ouargli, “Recognizing the Residences of the Algerian fahs,” in Patrimoines du Maghreb et inventaires (Paris: Hermann, 2016), 199-215.

2. William Shaler, Sketches of Algiers, Political, Historical, and Civil (Boston: Cummings, Hilliard, and Company, 1826), 47-48.

3. Christopher Ross, “American Embassy Properties in Algiers, Their Origins and History” (typescript), April 1991, US Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operations, 22-23; Algérie Palais et Somptueuses Demeures, (Alger: éd. Zaki Bouzid, 2013), 252. See “Private Ownership by Algerians, French, British, and Americans (1831-1962),” below, for a more detailed discussion during the French colonial period.

Figure 1.3.1

Model of the Villa Abd-el-Tif, a djenan constructed in the mid-17th century on the hillside beyond the walls of Algiers. (“Abd-el-Tif,” Trip Advisor, 2016)

Figure 1.3.2

The floor plan of the Ottoman Period DCMR probably resembled that of the Villa Abd-el-Tif (shown here) with long rooms on three sides, and the fourth side divided for a stair from the sqifa. (Adli-Chebaiki and ChabbiChemrouk, “Vernacular Housing in Algiers)

Figure 1.3.3

Room 1021, the court or atrium of Oued-el-Kilaï, contains many of the elements that characterized Ottoman building. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.3.4

The basement of the DCMR features ribbed masonry vaults dating from the Ottoman Period, such as this one in the room containing a cistern. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

the Ottoman period. At the DCMR, the Ottoman construction includes the rooms ranged around the central atrium on the first and second floors, as well as the basement areas below4. The k’bou (a square, domed ancillary room) on the east side of the DCMR probably also represents eighteenth-century construction. During the Ottoman period, there would have been one long room on three sides of the atrium, with perhaps a square, domed room in one corner, and a stair taking up half of the fourth side. The floor plan for the DCMR probably resembled that of the Villa Abd-el-Tif farther down the Sahel hillside. (Figure 1.3.2)5

Additional evidence supporting eighteenth-century construction derives from analysis of the building itself, which uses vernacular earthen architecture technology common to North African construction during the period. These techniques include rubble stone, rammed earth, and mortar, “thermal massing” of walls that insulate the interior, a “breathable” building system that provided circulation of air through window openings, ventilation channels built into the walls with interior openings, and the open central atrium.6 Ottoman-period houses also employed materials that signified a hierarchy of spaces within the building; more expensive materials indicated more important rooms. Marble was imported, for instance; therefore the octagonal, gray marble tiles of the DCMR’s wast al-dār floor signal the room’s importance, as compared to the painted tile floors seen elsewhere. The decoratively painted tiles, which also might have been imported, signified more important spaces than plain terra cotta or wood floors. Most of the floors employing painted tiles can be found in the Ottoman footprint of Villa Oued El Kilaï. (Some are later replacements.) Ceramic tile wainscot and wall panels were also typical features of Algerian djnâyan in the Ottoman period, and the Villa Oued El Kilaï possesses these features in the important rooms such as the wast al-dār.7 (Figure 1.3.3)

Mortar to secure the clay bricks or stone during the Ottoman period in Algiers consisted of a combination of

sand, lime, crushed brick or tile, and other inorganic aggregates, mixed with a binder. Five types of such historic mortars were found at the DCMR in a 2020 study of the building. Historic mortar colors ranged from almost white to light pink, orange, and brownish. Column shafts, capitals, bases, and abacuses in houses such as the DCMR were usually carved from locally quarried tuff stone and were often coated in a lime plaster. An exception were columns of the wast al-dār, which could be made of marble in the djnâyan of wealthier residents. The DCMR follows this pattern. Finishes dating to the Ottoman period have been found throughout Villa Oued El Kilaï, usually covered by later finishes and including some interventions. Some of the wood elements in the building, such as the wood joists supporting the gallery floors and the carved wood balustrade around the wast al-dār on the second floor, are also typical of Ottoman construction. Other characteristic features of the time and place include decorative niches with arch details peculiar to Algiers, arched windows, flat roofs with parapet walls, and beaded masonry vaults, especially in the basement, to support the floors above.

The Villa Oued El Kilaï includes all these features. (Figure 1.3.4) A complicating factor in dating individual elements of the DCMR is the knowledge that later owners replaced or repaired elements of the original building, often attempting to match the Ottoman-period features with either salvaged materials dating from the same time period or newly made matching materials. The square marble tiles surrounding the hexagonal ones in the wast al- dār, for instance, are suitable for eighteenth-century construction but appear to date from a later period. It also is likely that at least some of the more vulnerable materials, such as wood window frames, have been replaced in kind during later restorations, including the most recent, in 2018. Many doors display time-worn as well as recently cut elements. A 2019 study undertaken to determine the nature of some of the historic finishes in the DCMR concluded that the doors on the first and second floors were “substantially recent,” including some dating the period of US ownership. They do, however, resemble and

4. Work on the stucco facade of the DCMR in 2022-2023 provided information that may affect the conclusions of this building chronology. Please consult Volume 2, Appendix E, Exterior Stucco Project 2023, when determining the date of any particular section of the DCMR.

5. Current floor plans for the Villa Oued El Kilaï can be found in Volume II, Appendix A of the HSR. The earliest plans of the DCMR found in research are dated 1965 and illustrate the basement and second floor. They are included in Volume 2, Appendix B of the HSR.

6. Swanke Hayden Connell Architects, “US Embassy: Algiers – Engineering Condition Assessment Report of Deputy Chief of Mission Residence (DCM),” prepared for the US Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operations, March 15, 2013, II-1, III-1; L. Adli-Chebaiki, and N. Chabbi-Chemrouk, “Vernacular Housing in Algiers: A Semantic and Passive Architecture,” International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics 10:2 (2015), 157-161.

7. Swanke Hayden Connell Architects, I-13; Kermes SNC, [no title], prepared for the US Dept. of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operations, circa 2019, 2.

& Use / DCMR

Figure 1.3.6

The vaulting supports the arcaded area of the entrance hall that opens onto the Lower Terrace. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.3.7

The entrance Sqîfa at the DCMR has several features in common with the sqifa at the south entrance to the residence. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.3.5

Masonry vaulting is located behind this arch, which is located above the Rosemary Terrace. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.3.9

The red boundary marks the limits of Ottomanperiod construction within Fountain Court apartments 3 and 4. (Groupement Mesmoudi, “Study of restoration of external coatings and drainage system at apartments 3 and 4 of the Fountain Court,” 3.3.1)

Figure 1.3.8

1986 photograph of the entrance Sqîfa, prior to restoration. (Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operations)

1.3. Chronology of Development & Use / DCMR (cont’d)

are constructed like Ottoman period doors and in many cases clearly contain reused earlier elements.8

The Djnân Landscape

Djnâyan typically included an extensive landscape, as seen in the Villa Abd-el-Tif. (Figure 1.3.1) The property on which the Villa Oued El Kilaï stands was once quite large, at least once added to, and later subdivided.9 No clear image of the property exists before 1866, and no image before the twentieth century displays elements of the terraced gardens or the landscape beyond. The layout of the landscape during the Ottoman period is therefore not clear. Certain aspects of the existing landscape close to the Ottoman-period building, however, testify to eighteenth-century beginnings. As has been mentioned, Ottoman-period housing, both in the city and in the countryside, tended to be inwardly focused; buildings and walls protected the residents’ space and created exterior courtyards. Access to the residence was not direct but followed a bent axis that also preserved privacy. The extensive grounds provided for a variety of different landscapes — ornamental gardens, kitchen or vegetable gardens, orchards, shade trees, olive groves, fountains, pools, and a noria to help supply water for the residents. The form of the DCMR as it stands today includes some of these features — although altered or changed over the course of time, with some likely having been removed. Landscape elements such as the entrance Sqîfa (called the “covered entrance hall” in the 2013 Swanke Hayden Connell drawings10), the courtyard space enclosed by buildings and walls, and some form of ornamental and productive landscape to the south are all likely to have characterized the current DCMR in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Further, there is evidence of Ottoman period construction in the form of masonry vaults below the covered entrance hall on the south side of the DCMR’s

Lower Courtyard (Room 3001).11 (Figures 1.3.5 and 1.3.6)

The vaulting is located directly below the riyādh arcaded section of the covered entrance hall that opens from the Sqîfa to the terrace and above the east part of the current Rosemary Terrace. The presence of the vaulting in this location, as well as the entrance Sqîfa above, with its north-facing window, suggests some measure of formal treatment of the landscape here, although details of the treatment cannot be specified based on existing evidence. The entrance Sqîfa itself (at what is considered the basement level of the DCMR) is thought to be an Ottoman-period work, according to Swanke Hayden Connell’s 2013 study of the DCMR.12 (Figure 1.3.7) The square plan, seating niches with arches resting on columns, open on one side with a heavy door on the other side of the Sqîfa were often used in Ottomanperiod djnâyan. Physical investigation of the entrance sequence to the DCMR from the drive on the east has documented Ottoman-period tuff columns, mortars, plasters, and finishes in the entrance Sqîfa and in the arcaded section to the west that opens onto the Lower Terrace. While there have been some changes — the mosaic floor of the entrance Sqîfa, for instance was restored after 1986 (Figure 1.3.8) — these two elements, as well as the vaulted space beneath, appear to be part of the Ottoman-period construction of the property.13

Another attestation of Ottoman-period construction in the landscape can be found in what are now the Fountain Court Apartments. A study was undertaken in 2021 as part of an effort to restore the facades of Apartments 3 and 4 (west leg of the group). Physical investigation into the building indicated that walls in part of the first floor date to the Ottoman period. (Figure 1.3.9) This conclusion was reached based on the thickness of the walls, the local tuff rubble stone used for construction, and the heavily lime-based mortars — all characteristic of Ottoman period construction in Algiers. The building was likely used as a stable.14

12. Swanke Hayden Connell Architects, “Basement Floor

13. Kermes SNC, 17-26.

8. “Analysis and Documentation of the Renders and Finishes at Oued El Kilaï , US Deputy Chief of Mission Residence in Algiers: Executive Summary,” prepared for the US Department of State, Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, Office of Cultural Heritage, October 2020, 1-2; Kermes SNC, no title, circa 2019, 3, prepared for the US Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operations. Rather than try to unravel the date of origin for all the individual features of the DCMR in this chronology, they will be briefly discussed in the Chapter 4, Description and Character-Defining Features.

9. Two parcels were consolidated to form the basis of the current DCMR property early in the French colonial period. See the following section of this chronology — The Oued El Kilaï during the French Colonial Rule (1831-1962) — for more details.

10. Please see Volume 2, Appendix B, Reference Drawings for access to Swanke Hayden Connell plans.

11. Please see Volume 2, Appendix A, HABS Drawings to see floor plans showing room numbers.

Plan,” IV-8.

14. Groupement Mesmoudi, “Study of restoration of external coatings and drainage system at apartments 3 and 4 of the Fountain Court,” prepared for the US Department of State, 2021, 3.3.1; Swanke Hayden Connell Architects, II-2.

THE OUED EL KILAÏ DURING FRENCH

COLONIAL RULE (1831–1962)

Ownership: Algerian, French, British, and American

The land on which the DCMR stands was part of a parcel created in 1844, when two smaller tracts totaling 8.9 hectares were combined. One of the tracts encompassed most, if not all, of the current United States holdings, including both the DCMR site and the current embassy compound around it. The other tract lay to the west and has since been separated from the US holdings. In 1831, Sid Mohammed Ben El Hadj Hamida owned one of the properties, having acquired it from his father and leased it in perpetuity to its first French occupant.15 Ambassador Ross suggested the sale might have taken place in circumstances unfavorable to the Algerian owner as a result of the French conquest of Algiers. In 1837, Sid El Sherif Mustapha Ouled Erraïs leased this property, again in perpetuity, to the same French owner. It seems that Sid El Sherif Mustapha Ouled Erraïs had acquired the rights to the property from Sid Mohammed Ben El Hadj Hamida. In 1838 and 1839, the property was sold to successive French owners. Ross suggested that the multiple transfers of ownership in a short span of time might indicate that the land was acquired for speculative purposes or as a rental property, rather than as a residence for the owners. The second tract does not appear in records reviewed by Ross until 1843, when Sid Ahmed Ben El Sid Mohamed El Makfouldji leased the second property in perpetuity to its first French occupant. In 1844, a second French owner purchased this tract; he had already bought the first in 1839.16

The consolidated property was sold in 1861 to a French cattle breeder. In 1867, it was purchased by Lt. Col. Robert Lambert Playfair, who was the British consul general in Algiers from 1867 until 1896. Playfair also owned an adjacent property, called Sidi Alowi, where he resided. He probably rented out the property where the DCMR is located. Emily Frances Bury, Countess of

Charleville and widow of Count Alfred of Charleville Forest, in County Cork, Ireland, purchased the property from Playfair in 1878. The countess seems to have spent many winters in Algiers, as did thousands of her British compatriots. Records indicate that she made cash donations to the Anglican Church between 1878 and 1883 and in 1881 donated ecclesiastical accoutrements such as kneelers, hangings, alms bags, and bookmarkers. Americans John Marshall Sneden and his wife Marion Kinzi Sneden also donated to the Anglican church after they purchased the property from Bury in 1892. Ross speculated that Sneden may have been related to Samuel Sneden, a longtime shipbuilder in Brooklyn, where John Marshall Sneden was born, although research has not confirmed that connection. He is elsewhere described as being from Colorado. A memorandum from US Consul General Harold Finley describes Sneden as the American representative of the Vacuum Oil Company, one of the predecessors of the Standard Oil Company. Vacuum’s headquarters were located in Rochester, New York.17 It is in records for the sale to the Snedens that Villa Oued El Kilaï first appears as the name of the estate. The small river that flowed southeast of the property was designated the Oued El Kilaï in the 1878 sales contract between Playfair and Bury, which may account for the 1892 property name.18

The Sneden family owned the property until 1929, when it was acquired by French businessman and former naval officer René Paulus and his wife Marie-Louise Hélène Vogt Paulus. Mr. and Mrs. Sneden died in 1923 and 1925, respectively, and were buried in Algiers. Marion Sneden Lea, their daughter, probably inherited the property, but may not have lived there, according to Ross. Paulus and his wife later added a .8-hectare parcel that included a dwelling, bringing Oued El Kilaï’s total area to 9.7 hectares. The Paulus family lived at the djnân from 1929 until 1958, with the exception of the World War II years. Alfred Duff Cooper, Great Britain’s representative to the French National Committee of Liberation during the war, and his wife, Lady Diana Cooper, lived at Oued El Kilaï from

15. Ross does not include the names of the French owners in his study and provides no information on his sources. It is likely that the documents he reviewed are located in French repositories, review of which was outside the scope of the HSR.

16. Ross, “American Embassy Properties in Algiers,” 23-24.

17. Harold D. Finley, American Consul General, Algiers, to Secretary of State, March 9, 1946, Record Group 59, Records of the Department of State, Central Decimal Files, 1945-1949, box 1254, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland; “Business: Vacuum Standardized,” Time, March 3, 1930. The Vacuum Oil Company sold gasoline and kerosene in Egypt and other parts of Africa, as well as Europe, Asia, and Australia. If John Marshall Sneden did work for Vacuum, the African markets may account for his familiarity with Algiers.

18. Ross, “American Embassy Properties in Algiers,” 22, 24-25; Algeria: Palaces and Splendid Residences, 251-252. In his study, Ross pointed out that the river has had multiple names, so the connection of the river name to the house is uncertain. The ambassador wrote that the likely etymology of “Oued El Kilaï” is a corruption of “al-Qulay’I,” which, in Arabic means someone from the town of Kolea. The name for the river or the property could therefore have once been associated with someone from Kolea.

1.3. Chronology of Development & Use / DCMR (cont’d)

October 1943 to September 1944.19 Lady Cooper described her experiences at the villa in the 1960 book, Trumpets from the Steep. It was during this period that a number of well-known writers came to Oued El Kilaï, including journalist, soldier, and Member of Parliament Randolph Churchill (Winston Churchill’s son), British novelist Evelyn Waugh, French writer and Nobel Prize winner André Gide, and the American journalist and third wife of Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn. Mrs. Paulus inherited Oued El Kilaï from her husband but left Algiers in 1958 due to the Algerian War of Independence.20

The Djnân during the French Period, 1830–1962

Detailed documentation of the Villa Oued El Kilaï during the period is scarce. Footprints of the buildings appear on a small number of maps. A few photographs, taken in the early twentieth century, depict several views of the gardens near the villa, but little of the house itself. Lady Cooper provides only general descriptions of the property. :Physical investigation, on the other hand, differentiates between early and later mortars and finishes and construction techniques. As to which of the seven owners and unknown number of renters and occupants of the villa during the 130 years of French rule in Algeria may have made the changes, it is almost impossible to tell, although the time span can be narrowed down. From the information available, a general sense of the alterations to the Ottoman period construction during the period of French rule can be understood.

The cadastral map of Algiers and its surroundings from 1866 provides an important view of the property at the beginning of the period when Oued El Kilaï became a residence for wealthy British, American, and French owners. The property (Campagne Playfair) consists of a complex of buildings and open spaces bounded by walls at the end of a drive from the chemin Beaurepaire. (Figure 1.3.10) A second roadway skirts the property to the south, turning north along the west boundary. Surrounding the building complex is what was defined as a field (terrain;

“T” on the plan, no. 3012).21 The buildings include two structures to the south of the current villa (no. 3014 and 3016). The southernmost (3014) is no longer extant. The building numbered 3016 appears to include what is now the compound Sqîfa, as well as an L-shaped piece facing east. Together, the two buildings border a vegetable garden (jardin potager; “JP”; no. 3013) on three sides, with a wall to the east. The current Rosemary Terraces appear to occupy the area of the cadastral map depicting the L-shaped piece of building no. 3016 and the vegetable garden. West of these buildings is a walled courtyard with an L-shaped structure to the west (cour; “C”; no. 3015). Based on other precedents among the djnâyan, the L-shaped structure (no longer extant) may have been a riyādh where residents enjoyed the fresh air in a covered shelter. Today, this area is occupied by the West Terraces. Since topography is not noted on the cadastral plan, it is not possible to tell whether terraces existed at the time.

The current DCMR residence is indicated on the cadastral plan by another number. Although difficult to read, it is likely no. 3017, judging from the sequence of numbers on the property. A walled courtyard is located to the east and a smaller open space to the west. Adjacent to the east cour is another open space that appears to be a continuation of the drive, providing access to the residence through the east wall. The line between the cour and this drive extension may have been a wall of some kind; if so, it indicates a difference from the current two-level courtyard. It is possible to see the extension of the drive corresponding to the current Lower Courtyard (Room 3001) with the cour representing the Upper Courtyard (Room 3002). The footprint of the villa itself also differs from the understanding of the Ottomanperiod footprint suggested by drawings contained in the 2013 Swanke Haden Connell Architects “Evaluation Report” on the DCMR. The 2013 drawings depict a more-or-less square main body of the building with a projection (k’bou) on the east as dating from the Ottoman period.22 A squarish building can be discerned in the 1866 cadastral map footprint, but walls project from that square

19. The committee, headed by French General Charles de Gaulle, was formed to organize and coordinate the campaign of Free French forces to liberate France from Nazi occupation. After the Allies defeated the Nazis in Algeria, the committee acted as a provisional government for the country.

20. Ross, “American Embassy Properties in Algiers,” 24-26; Kathryn Bradley-Hole, Villa Gardens of the Mediterranean (London: Aurum Press, 2006), 18; Lady Diana Cooper, Trumpets from the Steep (London: [?], 1960), quoted in Ross, “American Embassy Properties in Algiers,” 40.

21. The numbered elements indicate properties that are subject to taxation. The arrows indicate properties owned by the same individual. (Samia Chergui, “Explanatory Note no. 1,” September 12, 2022)

22. Swanke Hayden Connell Architects, IV-9.

and its surroundings identifies buildings, courtyards, gardens, and other features of Campagne Playfair. (Algiers Land Registry Service, Commune of Mustapha, sheet 11, April 25, 1866)

Figure 1.3.10

The 1866 cadastral map of Algiers

Figure 1.3.11

A change in circulation at Villa Oued El Kilaï took place between 1866 and 1883, according to this map, which shows a new, curving entrance drive from the south. (Glycines Library, Algiers, Plan of Algiers and Surroundings, revised 1883)

on the east, north, and west. The reasons for these discrepancies are not known. The Ottoman-period stable building west of the villa (now part of Fountain Court apartments 3 and 4) does not appear on the 1866 map, although it is thought to have been constructed earlier.

A slightly later map of the area, initially drawn in 1870 and revised in 1883, indicates at least one change to the Playfair property. (Figure 1.3.11) Access to the villa has been altered since the 1866 cadastral map, with a drive curving up the hillside from the south before entering the villa complex. The buildings labeled 3014 and 3016 on the 1866 map, as well as the vegetable garden are probably those on the south (just above “214”), with the villa itself the smaller footprint above, across an open space. The two courts shown in 1866 east and west of the buildings, also appear in the 1883 map. Given the date of the map, the change to circulation would have taken place during the ownership of either Playfair (1867-1878) or Frances Bury (1878-1892). A sales contract associated with Bury’s purchase describes the djnân as including “a family mansion of Moorish style, stables, storerooms, various outbuildings, and an arable garden.” Further, the property was “crossed by the Hydra Aqueduct and planted with many fruit trees” and included “a farmer’s house well equipped with a noria.”23

Villa Oued El Kilaï seems to have approached its current configuration between 1883 and 1935, according to a map of the latter year. (Figures 1.3.12 and 1.3.13) The entrance drive still winds up the hillside from the south. Gone, however, are the buildings on that side of the property; a boundary wall has taken their place, perhaps encompassing the current Rosemary and West terraces, and an additional wall extends east to the entrance drive. Extensions to the Ottoman villa appear on the west, north, and northeast. The addition on the north probably encompasses current Rooms 1001–1004 on the first floor and 2000–2006 on the second floor. The northeast addition is an L-shaped structure, probably the current riyādh in that location. A small gap separates the two.

New construction also appears on the west side of the villa that turns north and connects to what is probably the Ottoman period stable, now part of the Fountain Court apartments. The entrance drive also seems to have been altered to reach this area. The current front door of the DCMR, opening into Room 1005 from the Upper Courtyard (Room 3002), is part of the west addition, suggesting an alteration of circulation to the villa and a de-emphasis on both the compound Sqîfa on the south and the house Sqîfa (Room 0001). These alterations would have taken place during the ownership of Frances Bury, John and Marion Sneden, or René and Marie-Louise Paulus.

Benjamin Bucknall has been suggested as the architect of the alterations to the Villa Oued El Kilaï during Playfair’s ownership.24 Based on the 1866 and 1883 maps, Playfair does not seem to have been involved. Bucknall still may have been. He came to Algiers for the first time in 1876 and moved there permanently in 1878 the year Frances Bury bought the villa from Playfair and soon built up a clientele among the AngloAmerican community. Bucknall remained in Algiers until his death in 1895. He therefore could have been responsible for the changes at Oued El Kilaï, which established, with its front door and direct access to the residence, a more European circulation pattern. As mentioned in chapter 2 of the HSR, however, other candidates for the alterations are known to have worked in the neighborhood, including Barthélemy Sébastien Vidal, Bucknall’s business partner, and architect Georges Guiauchain (1840–1912), who built several Moorish Revival retreats in el-Biar and Mustapha Supérieur.25

On both the first and the second floors of the villa, the rooms that first appear on the 1935 footprint on the west and north, such as Rooms 1001 and 1013a are broader than the long, narrow rooms in the Ottoman core. With a small number of exceptions, the later rooms have wood, rather than marble or decorated ceramic tile floors. The Swanke Hayden Connell report on the DCMR identifies

23.

24.

Quoted in Ross, “American Embassy Properties in Algiers,” 24.

Swanke Hayden Connell Architects, IV-1.

25. Algeria: Palaces and Splendid Residences, 31. See chapter 2 of the HSR, Historical Background and Context, “Influences on Algiers Architecture in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.”

1.3. Chronology of Development & Use / DCMR (cont’d)

Figure 1.3.13

The 1935 configuration closely matches that of DCMR today. (Hayden Swanke Connell, 2013)

Figure 1.3.14

Rooms 1016 (foreground) and 1017 the former dating to the Ottoman period, the latter to the French share decorative elements such as the tile flooring and the arch decoration. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.3.12

This French army map shows the configuration of buildings and walls in 1935. (France, Service Géographique de l’Armée, Alger et ses environs, 1935, gallica.bnf.fr)

Figure 1.3.15

An example of the French floor framing construction method plancher à voûtains below Room 1017. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

1.3. Chronology of Development & Use / DCMR (cont’d)

the wood floors with the nineteenth-century (or perhaps early twentieth-century) enlargement of the house. Swanke Hayden Connell also note, however, that on at least one occasion, the same tile floors are used in both Ottoman-period and French-period rooms (Rooms 1016 and 1017, respectively), indicating alterations to make them consistent. (Figure 1.3.14) These two rooms also share other ornamentation, including the plasterwork around and on the undersides of the arches and in the arch spandrels. If Room 1017 was added during the French period, then the arched opening and its decoration in both Room 1016 and Room 1017 also date from that time. Two rooms added after 1883 contain other elements not found in Ottoman-period construction painted Arabic writing on the walls in Room 1001 and Carrara marble window sills in Room 1017.26 Room 1013a, a nineteenth- or early-twentieth-century addition also employs Moorish Revival stucco ornamentation. The use of such decoration in Ottoman-period spaces such as Room 1016 suggests stucco decoration in Villa Oued El Kilaï may date generally to the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries or is a combination of Ottoman- and French-period work. It should also be noted that long narrow rooms on both the first and second floors have been divided after the Ottoman period, although it is not certain when these subdivisions took place. 27

Structural analysis conducted for the HSR also shows that the French plancher à voûtains floor framing system was used in the rooms first appearing in the 1935 map. (Figure 1.3.15) The same framing system is used to support the roof over Rooms 2011 and 2012 (the Evelyn Waugh Room), indicating repairs to the Ottoman core of the building during the French period.28

Little is known about the Villa Oued El Kilaï when the Paulus family resided there. Given the worldwide Depression in the 1930s, however, and World War II, when the Pauluses left Algeria, it seems probable that few additions or substantive changes to the property were made. Lady Diana Cooper testifies to this likelihood in her

1960 memoir, Trumpets from the Steep. Her comments on the house itself, in which she lived from October 1943 to September 1944, are generally limited to furnishings and accommodations, which had been seriously neglected before she and her husband arrived. She does report, however, that the British government installed electric heaters in the house, as well as a water tank on the roof. “Antiquated geysers” contrivances used to quickly heat water with a gas flame for bathing were “jettisoned.” It appears these devices were also located on the roof. Her only other comment on the building was that she had managed during the winter to light a fire “in one of the brothel-like sitting rooms.”29

Consul General Finley gives us a better description of the house in his memorandum to the Secretary of State in March 1946. It followed a telegram alerting Finley of the State Department’s desire of acquiring properties for use as diplomatic residences and offices in Algiers. This approach followed a post-war pattern for the department. At the time, the United States sought a more robust presence abroad, both diplomatically and militarily in its efforts to support democracies and American influence worldwide. With a large number of properties available at good prices in war-ravaged countries, the US determined to purchase, rather than lease, space for their outposts on foreign soil. Congressional authorization to use foreign credit, based on lend-lease and war asset agreements, surplus property disposal, and other programs, allowed the State department to acquire these properties without the use of tax dollars and therefore without Congressional oversight.30 Finley suggested the Villa Oued El Kilaï as such an acquisition, but the effort ultimately failed at this time.

Finley noted the “considerable repairs, remodeling, installation of heating, and hot water system, and painting” that would be required before the villa could be used by the United States. The plumbing would need to be modernized and additional bathrooms constructed. The house he describes, however, is instantly

26. Kermes, 78, 94.

27. Swanke Hayden Connell Architects, IV-13, 19-21.

28. See, DCMR HSR, Volume 2, chapter 1, “Structural Systems.”

29. Quoted in Ross, “American Embassy Properties in Algiers,” 40.

30. Loeffler, 37-50.

Figure 1.3.16

Frederick Evans’s photograph of a drive bordered by cypress trees was planned for publication in Country Life magazine. (Kathryn Bradley-Hole, Villa Gardens of the Mediterranean, 14)

recognizable. The front door opened into an entry hall that ran the width of the villa (Rooms 1002, 1005, 1006, 1018, and 1019). A small drawing room opened off the hall to the left (Room 1020). The dining room opened off the hall on the right (Room 1001). The central hall was open to the roof (Room 1021), with a balcony (gallery) that provided access to the second floor bedrooms. A large drawing room (Room 1017) was located across a hall (Room 1016) from the central hall, and the kitchen and pantries were located on the opposite side (Rooms 1003a, 1003b, 1004, and 1011a, 1011b). A medium-sized bedroom (Room 2002?) and a large bedroom (Room 2000?), as well as several small bedrooms (Rooms 2008-2009, 2012, and 2013?), were located on the second floor. Several of the bedrooms opened onto terraces. Two adjoining bathrooms were located next to the medium-sized bedroom (Rooms 2003a and 2003b). Finley’s description states that “Dutch tiling [was] used as wainscoting and for decoration” and notes that Dutch tiles were part of the plunder taken by pirates in eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.31

The French-Period Landscape

The 1935 French army map shows three buildings southwest of the villa that may have been a part of the French-period djnân. All three are close to the east-west road south of the property, but their purpose is unknown. One may be the farmer’s house described in the 1878 document associated with Frances Bury’s purchase. The map also shows green circles that likely refer to trees, but whether they depict the condition on the ground is unknown. During World War II, the landscape was lush but perhaps overgrown. “As far as we could see,” Cooper wrote, “was a jungle of palm and cypress-covered hills, green as jade.”32

Earlier in the century there were also lush, but controlled, gardens near the house, as five photographs taken by British photographer Frederick Evans attest. Intended for Country Life magazine, but never published, the pictures

show a cypress-lined drive in an unknown location on the property, the upper terrace garden east of the house, a view across the Lower Courtyard (Room 3001) toward the arcaded section of the covered entrance hall, and a view of the Upper Courtyard (Room 3002) and its Riyādh (Figures 1.3.16-1.3.20) The photographs were taken around 1915, when Americans John Marshall and Marion Kinzi Sneden owned and resided at Villa Oued El Kilaï.33 The drive appears to consist of hard-packed earth, with a low, rubble-stone wall on one side and a stone curb or hedge border on the other. With the exception of the drive and its borders, four steps, and a glimpse of wall and sky, greenery fills the rest of the photograph. The cypress trees rise from deep groundcover, a palm and other trees mark the end of the drive, and shrubs fill the background. In the remaining photos, gravel appears to be the chosen paving material, with plantings trees, flowers, groundcover, shrubs neatly placed in beds edged in stone or, in the upper terrace south of the entrance Sqîfa, low, trimmed hedges. Vines and espaliered plants grow on trellises consisting of either stone columns or round posts holding horizontal members, perhaps of wood. Vines also grow on the building face and walls, and potted plants can be seen within the arcade of the covered entrance hall and in the fountain basin of the Upper Courtyard.

Cooper provides some details on the type of plants in the landscape during the war years. Treading “the many paths in the garden,” she identifies a mimosa tree, jacaranda, red pomegranate flowers, acacias, arum lilies, and freesias. In May, she described the garden as “a wilderness of flowers,” although they abandoned the Riyādh at that time because of the heat. No mention is made of a vegetable garden or fruit trees, and the landscape beyond the courtyards and terraces is not described.34

Consul General Finley provides a description of the grounds of the djnân just after World War II in his 1946 memo. He refers to the main gate on the chemin de Beaurepaire and a “good-sized gatekeeper’s lodge” just

31. Finley to Secretary of State, March 9, 1946, 2.

32. Quoted in Ross, “American Embassy Properties in Algiers,” 39.

33. Kathryn Bradley-Hole, Villa Gardens of the Mediterranean (London: Aurum Press, 2006), 14-18.

34. Quoted in Ross, “American Embassy Properties in Algiers,” 40-41.

1.3. Chronology of Development & Use / DCMR (cont’d)

Figure 1.3.17

Gravel paths wound through the planting beds in the terraced garden south of the villa in Evans’s photograph. (Kathryn Bradley-Hole, Villa Gardens of the Mediterranean, 15)

Figure 1.3.18

Trellises were employed in several places in the garden, including the south terrace. (Kathryn Bradley-Hole, Villa Gardens of the Mediterranean, 19)

Chronology of Development & Use / DCMR (cont’d)

Figure 3.19

Potted plants filled the loggia in the entrance sqifa. ( Kathryn Bradley-Hole, Villa Gardens of the Mediterranean, 18)

Figure 3.20

In the Upper Court Yard, a palm tree grew above potted plants in the fountain basin. (Kathryn Bradley-Hole, Villa Gardens of the Mediterranean, 16-17)

inside it. The villa itself stood about 200 yards from the street and was reached by a winding drive. Stairs from the drive also reach the house. As with the house itself, Finley describes a number of features recognizable today, such as the Sqîfa (“a small room which in turn opens on to a walled courtyard”). At the time, “an enormous old tree” of unspecified species grew in the courtyard, which also included a fountain. Stairs rose from the courtyard to the front door. These features can be seen in a 1965 drawing of the property.35 The tree grew in the Lower Courtyard, with the fountain centered in the Upper Courtyard. The grounds on the south side of the house included a “women’s garden” (not described), as well as “several terraces of flower beds, arbors, greenhouses, etc., all enclosed within a high wall.” “A covered tile balcony” was located in the garden, “suitable for out-of-doors dining.” Finley is likely describing here what are now the Rosemary and West terraces. It is not clear from the memo whether the women’s garden was included in this area or was separate from it. The park beyond these gardens, described as “very extensive,” includes “roads and paths,” a four-room gardener’s house, “terraces for the raising of flowers and vegetables,” and” an “almost destroyed greenhouse.” A “service courtyard” was located between the kitchen area and the former stables. Structures in this area included three garages, woodsheds, and storehouses.36

Finley also described a landscape feature that no longer exists. “[I]n front” of the villa stood “a formal Italian garden paved in part with flagstones, and containing hedges and flower beds. This garden is surrounded by balustrades on which are mounted carved stone columns some three meters in height. A wind shelter with tile seats occupies one corner of the garden.”37 Since Finley describes the courtyard immediately in front of the house and the terraced gardens elsewhere, the location of the Italian garden is uncertain. The text on the Italian garden is located between the descriptions of the winding drive from the street and the sqïfa opening into the courtyard. Finley may then be referring to the land between the

current courtyard wall east of the house and the street, encompassing what is now the paved apron at the end of the entrance drive and the stairs, lawn, and flower beds between the apron and the CAC.

ACQUISITION AND OCCUPATION BY THE US GOVERNMENT (1962–PRESENT)

Previous US Diplomatic Properties in Algiers

Until the 1911 Lowden Act, named for its sponsor, US Representative Frank O. Lowden of Illinois, American diplomats were responsible for finding and paying for their own accommodations. This circumstance had the practical effect of limiting diplomatic service to wealthy individuals. Lowden’s legislation authorized the use of public funds to buy land and construct buildings for American diplomatic missions. Prior this time, the residence and office of the diplomat were usually located in the same building.38 In early relations with Algiers, United States consuls typically rented a house in the city, either from the Ottoman government or from a wealthy local resident. It was often located near the residences of the consuls of other nations. US consuls also often rented a djnân in the heights outside the city. Joel Barlow, in Algiers in 1796 and 1797, is the first envoy known to have both city and country residences. Barlow wrote to US Secretary of State Timothy Pickering that the city residence was used for official business and as a domicile, while the country place functioned as a retreat “in time of plague” and as a farm property for keeping cattle and producing wine. This practice continued through the rest of the Ottoman period. Consul General William Shaler occupied a well-appointed and typical Algerian townhouse consisting of a basement and two habitable stories ranged around a square, open courtyard. The Ionic columns supporting the arcades of the wast al-dār were carved from Italian marble. His country property was somewhat more modest. Ambassador Ross describes it as “a small garden plot.” As a consequence of the consuls finding their own

35. Please see "1965 Ground Floor Plan," Volume 2, Appendix B, Reference Drawings.

36. Finley to Secretary of State, March 9, 1946, 1, 3.

37. Finley to Secretary of State, March 9, 1946, 2.

38. Jane Loeffler, The Architecture of Diplomacy (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2011), 13-17.

Figure 1.3.21

A postcard showing apartment buildings on the rue Michelet, circa 1910. (Wikimedia Commons)

1.3.

Chronology of Development & Use / DCMR (cont’d)

accommodations, the address of the consular residence and offices changed with each new diplomat.39

After the French invasion of Algeria in 1830, the US consul continued to be responsible for residential and office accommodations. Ambassador Ross, in his study of the United States mission to Algeria, identifies eleven locations where the consul lived and worked between 1830 and 1909. In only one case was the consul recorded as living in the Sahel, in 1909. The remaining locations were all in the city, frequently near other consular residences or important government buildings. In 1909, while the consul lived in the Sahel, both the vice and deputy consuls lived in the city. After the Lowden act was passed in 1911, the US Government negotiated longer leases for the consulate. It also appears, although the matter is not clear, that diplomatic residences began to be separated from consular offices after the Lowden Act was passed. In 1924, for instance, the consul general lived at Villa Magnan, 159 rue Michelet (now rue DidoucheMourad), while the consulate was located near the main post office in town, on boulevard Carnot (now boulevard Zighoud-Youcef) along the waterfront. (Figure 1.3.21)

Evidence presented in Ross’s study suggests that interest by US consular officers in the Sahel as a place of residence began in the 1920s. Although he reports on only three years between 1927 and the end of World War II, American diplomatic officers lived on the heights above the bay on all three occasions. In 1927, the vice consul lived at Villa Sidi Salah on chemin Beaurepaire (now chemin Cheikh El Bachir El Ibrahimi), the street passing between the current CMR and DCMR.40

In January 1940, the office of the US Consulate General was moved to 119 rue Michelet. The office occupied the third and fourth floors of an apartment building.41 Felix Cole, the American consul general, bragged that the US offices were better than those of any other mission, including the British, Italian, and Swiss. The German offices were located in a “large and handsome Moorish ‘villa’ situated magnificently on a prominent hilltop commanding

a view of the entire city, harbor, and bay.”42 It is unclear where the consular officers lived at this time. The Rue Michelet offices were subject to a number of terrorist attacks in the late 1950s and early 1960s during Algeria’s War of Independence. Partly in reaction to these events, the US government sought office space for the consul general outside the city. The United States had acquired the Mustapha Raīs property in 1948, planning to construct a chancery and other offices there, but the work had never started.43 In 1961, the US government acquired the Villa Mektoub, a former residence that had been used as a medical examination center in the 1950s.44

Consul General Finley began looking for a residence for himself and future consuls early in 1946. He first reported on Villa Oued El Kilaï on March 8, 1946, indicating it might be purchased for approximately $150,000, with perhaps $25,000 needed for repairs. The United States also considered acquiring the Villa Klene, where General Dwight Eisenhower had lived for two years during World War II. For reasons that are not entirely clear from the correspondence, neither of these properties became available to the United States at this time, and by early 1947, the State Department had turned its attention to the Villa Montfeld, which it acquired in June of that year.45

The Villa Oued El Kilaï — Rented and Traded For

The United States established diplomatic relations with Algeria on September 29, 1962, when the new government agreed to elevate the US mission to embassy status. William J. Porter was appointed the first US ambassador to Algeria. On November 1, 1962, the US government began leasing Villa Oued el Kilaï from Mme. Paulus, the widow of René Paulus, who had purchased the property in 1929, for use as an embassy annex. The property contained approximately 10.9 hectares.46 Mme Paulus died in 1963. Her son-in-law Pierre Gerlier then became responsible for the property. The Paulus family owned the property until 1966, when the Algerian government implemented Ordinance 66-102, giving it the

39. Christopher Ross, “The United States Mission in Algeria, A Historical Sketch” (typescript), April 1991, 34-37, https://dz.usembassy.gov/wp-content/ uploads/sites/236/2017/04/US-Mission-to-Algeria-A_Historical_Sketch.pdf, accessed September 30, 2022.

40. Ross, “The United States Mission in Algeria,” 37-39.

41. Post Report, American Consul General, Algiers, Algeria, 3/14/1945, RG 59, Records of the Dept. of State, Central Decimal Files, 1945-49, Box 1254.

42. Felix Cole, American Consul General, Algiers, to Sec. of State, 1/24/1940, RG 59, Records of the Dept. of State, Central Decimal Files, 1940-1944, Box 825.

43. Ross, “The United States Mission in Algeria,” 24.

44. Ross, “American Embassy Properties in Algiers,” 11.

45. Finley to Secretary of State, 3/8, 3/18, 4/6, 5/7, 9/19, 1946, 1/29, 1947; Dean Acheson, Acting Secretary of State, to American Embassy London, March 27, 1946; , Record Group 59, Records of the Department of State, Central Decimal Files, 1945-1949, box 1254, NARA, College Park, Maryland.

46. “History and Significance,” US Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operations Archives, n.d.

Figure 1.3.22

The Logement de Gardien at the Villa Oued El Kilaï in 1965. (Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operations)

1.3. Chronology of Development & Use / DCMR (cont’d)

authority to appropriate bien vacants — properties deemed to be abandoned by their owners. Title for Oued El Kilaï thereby passed to the state, and the United States began paying rent to the Algerian government. Between 1962 and 1965, the property was reduced in size (from 9.9 hectares to 3.0 hectares) through takings by the Algerian government for public purposes. The US did not seriously contest these actions because Algeria had made it clear that it would not allow such a large holding by a foreign country and because the American mission did not need that many hectares of land.47

Uses of the property varied. For thirty years, between 1963 and 1993, the American School of Algiers (formerly the English Speaking School and then the International School of Algiers) operated out of buildings at Villa Oued el Kilaï. Drawings of the property from 1965 describe it as Services Administrafs and show the school occupying one of the buildings now part of the Fountain Court Apartments. An infirmary, an office, and a room for teletype machines were located on the ground floor of the main building. In the drawings, the room uses designated for the first and second floors are those of a residence salle à manger (dining room), salon (living room), chambre (bedroom), salle de bain (bathroom). South of the villa, what are now the West Terraces are labeled as an orchard, while the Rosemary Terraces constituted a garden. A pergola covered part of the east-west walk next to the garden, and a metal fence with cypress trees bordered the property on the north. As many as eighteen separate buildings and structures were located on the property in 1965, among them the gatekeeper’s lodge identified by Finley (Figure 1.3.22), at least two administrative buildings, a movie theater, garages, and a snack bar.48

In the mid-1960s, Ambassador Porter suggested that the Villa Oued el Kilaï property be used for a consolidated United States mission to Algeria, in response to the interest the Algerian government showed in acquiring the Mustapha Raïs property from the United States for its own

use. That dispute lingered until 1983, causing the embassy to continually reevaluate and shuffle the programming of the buildings it rented.49 Events such as the 1967 war between Israel and several of its Arab neighbors increased the tensions and even resulted in a break in diplomatic relations between the United States and Algeria that lasted until November 12, 1974, when the embassies in both countries reopened their embassies.50

From 1973 to 1975, Charles Higginson, Economic Counselor (US Interests Section), occupied the Villa Oued el Kilaï with his family, although the residence was apparently intended for the deputy chief of mission. “We had a wonderful residence right across from the embassy,” Higginson recalled in an oral history interview. “It was the DCM’s residence, but without a DCM, I lucked into it.” The villa became the permanent home of the deputy chief of mission after Higginson and his family left.51 By 1979, the American School occupied all of the buildings that now make up the Fountain Court apartments, as well as several small, circular and rectangular buildings dotting the grounds, according to a site plan by architect Z. Zobiri.52

The United States finally acquired the Villa Oued El Kilaï on October 12, 1983, in exchange for the Mustapha Raïs property that the US had purchased in 1948. By that time, the area of the villa grounds had been further reduced from 3.0 hectares to 2.4 by Algerian government encroachment on the southeast, according to Ross.53

Alterations to the Residence during American Occupation

Research for this HSR collected floor plans for the Villa Oued el Kilaï dated August 22, 1965, and January 2, 1979.54 Between these two dates, the United States made multiple alterations to the residence. It may be that the changes were made in preparation for the villa becoming the DCMR. If that is true, and the changes were made

47. Ross, “American Embassy Properties in Algiers,” 27-28.

48. Please see Volume 2, Appendix B, Reference Drawings for access to the 1965 drawings.

49. William Porter, US Ambassador to Algiers, to the US State Department, telegrams, November 23, 1964; November 27, 1964; February 18, 1965, Record Group 59, Records of the US Department of State, Subject Numeric Files 1964-66, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD.

50. US Department of State, Office of the Historian, “A Guide to the United States’ History of Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations by Country, since 1776: Algeria,” US Department of State website, https://history.state.gov/countries/Algeria, accessed July 28, 2022.

51. Charles Higginson Oral History, Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Algeria Country Reader, 112

52. Z. Zobiri, Architect, “American Embassy Algiers, Oued El Kilaï : Plan de masse,” no. 13, January 2, 1979, Record Group 59, Records of the US Department of State, Cartographic and Architectural Drawings Division, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland.

53. Ross, “American Embassy Properties in Algiers,” 28-29.

54. Please see Volume 2, Appendix B, Reference Drawings for access to the 1965 and 1979 drawings.

Figure 1.3.23

The marble pair of columns in the double-arched window opening in the east wall of the Dining Room, looking east. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

before Higginson and his family occupied the villa, then they would have been made in approximately 1972. However, they could have been made after Higginson left Algiers, in which case the changes would have been made roughly between 1976 and the end of 1978. The alterations were generally of two kinds many of the windows were altered, and decorative niches were inserted in some internal walls. A small number of other changes to interior walls were also made.

Based on a comparison of the 1965 and 1979 drawings, it appears that, throughout the building, double-arched windows with central columns dating to the period of significance were almost entirely limited to the first floor of the additions constructed during the period of French rule. This conclusion and those that follow are based on the assumption that the small circles in the centers of the window sills in the drawings are columns and that the presence of columns indicates a pair of arches above. Only two rooms of the Ottoman core of the building on the first floor possessed double-arched windows in 1965 (Rooms 1001 and 1018), and in both of those rooms alterations were made by 1979. No windows on the second floor of either the Ottoman or French parts of the building featured double-arched openings with columns in 1965; four included them in 1979 (Rooms 2000, 2012, 2013, and 2018). Room 2002 possessed a triple-arched window in 1979. The other significant alterations to the windows relate to the location of the column within the window opening. In the 1965 drawings, the column is always located outside of the window sash. In most of the windows in the 1979 drawings, the column is located inside the window sash. The changes seem to have required the movement, or replacement, of the columns themselves, rather than moving the window sash, judging from the relative locations of the columns within the window openings as shown on the plans. It is clear that, in some cases, the columns were replaced. In Room 1001, for instance, a single column is shown in the east window in 1965, whereas a double column is shown in 1979. (Figure 1.3.23)

Like the windows, Algerian arched niches seem to have been original to the French period construction only. In the Ottoman core of the building, the 1965 drawings show

niches only in the group of spaces consisting of Rooms 1006, 1019, and 1020. This means that niches such as the one in the Entry Hall (Room 1002) and in the Atrium (Room 1021) were added in the 1970s renovation of the building. (Figure 1.3.24) Generally speaking, walls on the first floor were left as they were in the renovation, with the exception of cutting the new niches. In the Salon (Room 1013a), a window was cut in the south wall between 1965 and 1979 where a niche had been located. More alterations to walls were made on the second floor, including three niches added to the gallery (Room 2010). In addition to added niches, Room 2005 was altered, with a closet carved into one corner, the existing doorway in the north doorway closed, and another opening in that wall enlarged to create a door. The effect of these changes was to give the Villa Oued El Kilaï a more Moorish Revival appearance.

Photographs from 1980s and 1990s held by the Office of Overseas Buildings Operations suggest that additional changes were made to the DCMR after the United States acquired it in 1983 in a trade for the Villa Mustapha Raīs. Generally speaking, the changes were superficial, although on a small number of occasions they were more substantial. The bands of plaster ornament below the ceilings in Rooms 1002 and 1005, for instance were painted after 1990, according to photographs. (Figures 1.3.25 and 1.3.26) These photographs also reveal two general changes that took place at the DCMR after 1990 the removal of the metal grilles that formerly covered the windows and the replacement of window sash, often painted white, with stained wood sash. The removal of the grilles included those held within the window opening and those attached to the exterior façade. (Figures 1.3.27 and 1.3.28) A small number of the grilles within the window opening remain (Room 2000, for instance). The glass and wood partition in Room 1014 has also been replaced recently, and two other changes have been made in that room that make it consistent with the rest of the finishes, but may suggest a false sense of history. Photographs indicate that, in 1993, the wall below the white-painted wood and glass partition in Room 1014 was also white. Currently, ornamental tiles cover this surface that match or nearly match the wainscot in the room, suggesting that this treatment might be older than it actually is. (Figures

Figure 1.3.27

DCMR east façade, showing window grilles, 1993. Looking northwest. (Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operation)

Figure 1.3.28

DCME east façade, 2022. Looking west. (Robinson & Associates)

Figure 1.3.25

Room 1002 in 1990, showing unpainted plaster ornament near ceiling. Looking north. (Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operations)

Figure 1.3.24

Niche in the west wall of the Entry Hall, looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.3.26

Room 1002 in 2022, showing painted plaster ornament near ceiling. Looking north. (Robinson & Associates)

1.3.29 and 1.3.30) In addition, the door between Rooms

1013a and 1014 is now constructed of wood boards and has a perforated metal cover with a crescent moon and star device on the side facing Room 1014. (Figure 1.3.31) Photographs show, however, that in 1986, a wood and glass door filled this opening. (Figure 1.3.32) The date of the current door is not known, nor is its association with the DCMR. Its construction and symbolism, however, might suggest a connection with the Villa Oued El Kilaï’s history that does not exist.

The inevitable upgrading of HVAC systems has resulted in recent years in the addition of registers affixed to the walls above windows in some locations. The connections of the registers to the HVAC system, however, has been hidden within the walls. In a few rooms, such as Rooms 2012 and 2013, wall-to-wall carpeting has removed, revealing decorative floor tiles dating to the period of significance. In Room 2013, the ceiling was altered after 1990. (Figures 1.3.33 and 1.3.34) A 1990 photograph shows a flat, board ceiling, while a current photograph shows a beamed ceiling. A similar beamed ceiling, painted white, can be found in Room 2000. A 1990 photograph of that room does not show enough of the ceiling to suggest whether the beamed ceiling is also a recent replacement.

In 2018, restoration of Arabic calligraphy discovered earlier on the wall in the Dining Room (Room 1001) was undertaken. The project, executed by Tassili Patrimonie and Imene Nabet, involved manual and chemical cleaning of the calligraphy itself, as well as removing paint that had hidden the writing and applying a fixative and an acrylic resin for protection. The entire extent of the writing could not be uncovered due to earlier damage, but it probably circled the room at chair-rail height. The writing is thought to be one of the Yusuf sūrah (chapters) from the Qu’ran.55 (Figure 1.3.35)

Transformation of the Djnân Landscape

A site plan produced as part of the 1965 drawings set, shows the Villa Oued El Kilaï landscape as denslly wooded, crossed by winding drives, and dotted with

nearly twenty additional buildings and structures.56 A cypress hedge borders the north side of the property near the villa; a right-angled mur mitoyen, or party wall marks the north boundary from the villa to the street. Picket fences line the property lines on the west and south. The main drive that winds up the hillside to the villa is called the voie Goudronnáe. A parking lot is also shown. Three sets of steps also climb the hill from the south. Two marabout shrines marking the burial place of a Muslim holy man — are located on the property. One stands where the existing marabout is located, near the tennis court. The other is along the chemin de Beaurepaire. The Italian garden described by Consul General Finley is no longer present, but the walled garden immediately south of the residence appears to fit the form as it stands today. There are no labels for this garden on the large site plan, but the ground floor plan of the residence shows an orchard and a garden in this space.

The 1979 site plan shows basically the same arrangement of boundaries, buildings, and drives (with a small number of added buildings).57 The form of the courtyard east of the villa (Rooms 3001-3003) also remains the same as in 1965, and the arrangement of posts on either side what is now the gravel walk, perhaps acting as a pergola, can be discerned. Other landscape features, such as fences, hedges, trees, stairs, and so on, are not depicted. One change to the grounds that was made between 1965 and 1979 is the addition of a playground and a playing field beyond the villa’s east wall, between the entrance drive and the north wall. The apron in front of the Compound Sqîfa appears to follow its 1965 dimensions.

The first photographs of the landscape immediately surrounding the DCMR after the United States occupied Villa Oued El Kilaï date to the same year it was acquired 1983. A photograph of the courtyard area (Rooms 3001-3003) depicts a marble fountain basin with an undecorated fountain head, white painted masonry walls between the Upper Courtyard (Room 3002) and the Riyādh Terrace (Room 3003), and masonry steps. (Figure 1.3.36) The surface of the Upper Courtyard appears to be concrete, lined with many cracks. A tree grows out of

55. Oued el Kilaï, Residence of the Deputy Chief of Mission, United States Embassy, Algiers, Algeria US Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operations, n.d.; Virginia Price, Historian, Office of Cultural Heritage, Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, US Department of State, to authors (electronic mail), January 9 and 10, 2023.

56. Please see Volume 2, Appendix B, Reference Drawings for access to the 1965 drawings.

57. Please see Volume 2, Appendix B, Reference Drawings for access to the 1979 drawings.

Figure 1.3.29

White-painted wood window frame and white lower wall in Room 1014, 1993. Looking southeast. (Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operation)

Figure 1.3.30

Stained wood window frame and ornamental tile lower wall in Room 1014, 2022. Looking southeast. (Robinson & Associates)

Figure 1.3.32

Glimpse of glass and wood door from Room 1013a to 1014 (right of photo), 1986. (Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operations)

Figure 1.3.31

Wood board door from Room 1013a to Room 1014, 2022. Looking southwest. (Robinson & Associates)

Figure 1.3.33

Flat board ceiling in Room 2013, 1990. Looking east. (Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operations)

Figure 1.3.34

Beamed ceiling in Room 2013, 2022. Looking east. (Robinson & Associates)

Figure 1.3.35

Restored calligraphy in Room 1001, looking northwest. (Robinson & Associates)

Detail of Fig. 1.3.35

Figure 1.3.36

Fountain basin in the Upper Courtyard, 1983. Looking northwest. (Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operations)

Figure 1.3.37

Rebuilt retaining wall between the Lower and Upper Courtyards, 1983. Looking northeast. (Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operations)

Figure 1.3.38

Newly surfaced courtyards, 1989. Looking southeast. (Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operations)

Figure 1.3.39

The garden area now known as the Rosemary Terraces, 1983. Looking southwest. (Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operations)

1.3. Chronology of Development & Use / DCMR

ground cover west of the fountain, and a planting bed is located on the north side of the Upper Courtyard, against the retaining wall of the Riyādh Terrace. The retaining wall between the Lower and Upper Courtyards was rebuilt in brick (later stuccoed and painted) in 1986. (Figure 1.3.37) It may be that at this time the border around the large tree in the courtyard that appears in the 1965 and 1979 drawings (and the tree itself, if it was still located in the courtyard) was removed and the existing center steps were established. The steps were in place at least by 1989, and the courtyards were surfaced with red terra cotta tiles. (Figure 1.3.38)

The walled garden area of the DCMR was also photographed in 1983. (Figure 1.3.39) The photos focus on what is now the Rosemary Parterre. The photographs show the parterre much as it exists today, with six sharply defined rectangles divided by paths and an octagonal fountain basin in the center of the four western plots. Palm trees stand at the center of each rectangle, the edges of which are marked by plantings. This parterre form has persisted in the Rosemary Terraces since 1983, according

to additional photographs, although plant, path, and edge materials have changed. (Figures 1.3.40) In the 1983 photograph, vines, trees, and other plantings can be seen beyond the parterre, but it is difficult to perceive the form of the rest of the garden. A 1986 photograph, looking toward the residence from near the steps between the terraces, shows a portion of a neatly trimmed West Terrace, although little else is visible. (Figure 1.3.41) It appears, however, that the orchard identified in the 1965 drawing no longer exists by this date.

While the character of the courtyards and the terraces have remained consistent since the United States acquired the Villa Oued El Kilaï in 1983, the grounds outside to the south, west, and east have changed substantially. The bulk of the substantive alterations took place in the early years of the twenty-first century when the new embassy compound was built. The extensive project removed most of the buildings outside the walled villa area and built new ones, altered circulation, and decreased the wooded nature of the site in order to create a functional, modern, and secure diplomatic facility.

Figure 1.3.40

The Rosemary Parterre, 1990. Looking south. (Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operations)

Figure 1.3.41

Partial view of the West Terraces, 1986. Looking northwest. (Department of State, Office of Overseas Buildings Operations)

1.4 Evaluation of Significance / DCMR

The contents of this chapter follow US Department of the Interior guidelines for evaluating the significance of historic resources adapted to the specific requirements for historic structure reports and cultural landscape reports prepared for the Department of State.1 As such, the chapter provides an analysis of the significance of the DCMR for its architectural, landscape, and historical importance, information on the property’s landmark status in both the United States and in Algeria, and an evaluation of the integrity of the property’s current architectural and landscape features and qualities. A description and identification of the architectural and landscape characteristics that contribute to the significance of the DCMR is provided in Chapter 5.

The statement of significance presented in this chapter is based on the history of the DCMR property and an understanding of the historic patterns or trends that provide a perspective from which to understand its value. It follows US Department of the Interior guidelines for applying the National Register of Historic Places criteria for evaluation. Under this framework, historic properties can be significant according to the following criteria:

Criterion A, for resources associated with significant events, historical trends, or broad patterns of history; Criterion B, for resources associated with significant persons; Criterion C, for resources that embody distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, resources that represent the work of a master, or resources that possess high artistic value; and Criterion D, for resources that yield information important to prehistory or history.

The period of significance for a historic building or landscape is based upon the length of time that the resource made the contributions or achieved the character on which the significance is based. Properties may have one or more periods of significance, and some periods of significance may be as brief as a single year.

For resources significant for their design, the period of significance may be the date of construction and/or the dates of any significant alterations or additions. For the site of an important event, the period of significance is the time when the event occurred. For properties associated with historical trends or important contributions to the broad patterns of history, the period of significance is the span of time when the property actively contributed to the trends.

“Integrity” refers to the degree to which an element or feature reflects its appearance during the period of significance and takes into account the physical condition of the element or feature. This chapter evaluates the integrity of the building and landscape together, comparing findings from the DCMR’s historical development with existing conditions to identify which aspects of the building and site contribute to its historic significance.

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

The DCMR is significant for its associations with Algiers’ urban development, its architectural and landscape design, and its association with the diplomatic history of the United States. In the urban evolution of Algiers, the DCMR is significant as part of the development of the fahs in the hills outside the walled city, first as a place of rest and refuge from the summer heat and threat of disease in the city by members of the elite in Algerian society during the Ottoman period and later as an AngloAmerican winter colony, starting in the mid-nineteenth century and continuing until the eve of the first World War. Beginning in the late seventeenth century, Mustapha Supérieur, El Biar, and other neighborhoods in the heights around Algiers attracted members of the Ottoman ruling class, wealthy merchants, and successful privateers. They built country estates, known as djnâyan, that provided fruits and vegetables as well as cleaner air and cooler temperatures than the densely built city along the shore.

1. These guidelines can be found in multiple National Park Service publications including: National Register Bulletin 15: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation; National Register Bulletin 18: How to Evaluate and Nominate Designed Historic Landscapes; and the Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports: Contents, Process, and Techniques (1998), among others.

After the conquest of Algeria by the French in the midnineteenth century, the Sahel, as heights above the city were known, became an October-to-May resort for wealthy British and Americans. Many of these seasonal residents, like British Consul General Sir Robert Lambert Playfair, came for the healthy and curative properties of the area’s warm, dry climate. Others came as tourists, drawn to the North African coast by the perceived exoticism of Algiers yet comforted by the familiarity of its French administration. Visitors wealthy enough and willing to make a more permanent commitment to the area bought Ottoman-era country estates, known as campagne during the French period, which they renovated or redeveloped. Playfair purchased two adjacent properties in the Sahel, living at one and renting the other. The rental property, which became known as Villa Oued El Kilaï, is now the DCMR. A British countess, Emily Frances Bury, purchased it from Playfair in 1878 and became a prominent member of the Anglo-American community in Algiers. Wealthy Americans John Marshall Sneden and Marion Kinzi Sneden acquired the djnân from Bury in 1892 and also became active in the expatriate community. As frequently happened in Algiers, French owners followed the Americans after World War I, when René Paulus and his wife Marie-Louise Hélène Vogt Paulus purchased Oued El Kilaī from the Snedens’ daughter. It remained in the Paulus family until it was confiscated by the government of recently independent Algeria in 1966, following a government order allowing for seizure of property from absent French owners. This pattern of ownership of the djnâyan following the expulsion of the Ottomans from Algeria followed a path characteristic of such a property.

The DCMR is also significant in the area of design as an important example of an Ottoman-period djnân, likely constructed in the late eighteenth century and renovated during the nineteenth and, perhaps, early twentieth centuries in the Moorish Revival style. While the Ottoman owner and builder of the Villa Oued El Kilaï is uncertain, the property manifests many characteristics of the eighteenth-century Sahel djnâyan. The layout of the house follows the familiar Algerine Ottoman formula for

country as well as city residences — a multi-story, more or less square-plan building organized around an open courtyard (the wast al-dār, today called the atrium), with an entrance protected by two Sqîfas (vestibules), and an exterior courtyard. Buildings, galleries, and walls enclosed the courtyards, providing protected spaces, free from intrusion, which were characteristic of residential construction in both the city and the countryside during the Ottoman period. The DCMR also displays the vernacular earthen architecture technology common to North African construction during the period. These techniques include rubble stone and lime mortar, “thermal massing” of walls that insulate the interior, a “breathable” building system that provided circulation of air through window openings, ventilation channels built into the walls with interior openings, and the open central atrium. Ottoman-period houses also employed materials that signified a hierarchy of spaces within the building; more expensive materials indicated more important rooms, such as the imported octagonal, gray marble tiles of the wast al-dār floor. Decorative tiles, which also might have been imported, signified more important spaces than plain terra cotta or wood floors. Most of the floors employing painted tiles can be found in the Ottoman footprint of Oued el Kilaï, although some are later replacements. Ceramic tile wainscot and wall panels were also typical features of Algerian djnâyan in the Ottoman period, and the Oued El Kilaï possesses these features in its most important rooms. Landscape characteristics also witness the Ottoman origins of the property. Although reduced from its late eighteenth- or early nineteenthcentury size (more than 8.9 hectares), elements such as the terraced gardens on the east and the courtyards enclosed by walls and buildings characterized such country estates.

As with many of the estates in the Sahel, the Oued El Kilaï residence was enlarged (on the west and south) by its owners during the French period. The additions altered the building’s circulation, added the type of living space most Europeans and Americans preferred (including larger rooms), and enhanced decorative aspects of the interior with plaster ornament, additional or replaced

decorative tilework, round-arched windows with stone columns, arched wall niches, and wood floors and ceilings. These features were characteristic of the Moorish Revival style, carried out by expatriate as well as local architects for the visitors from the United States, Great Britain, and other European countries. The plaster ornament especially, carried out in rooms added or altered during the French period, distinguishes the Villa Oued El Kilaï among renovations of the time. The architect of the Moorish Revival alterations is not known for certain, although Ambassador Christopher Ross has posited a possible designer in Benjamin Bucknall, a British architect living in Algiers, who worked at the Villa Montfeld just across the road. Other candidates for the work include Bucknall’s disciple and business partner, Barthélemy Sébastien Vidal (1851-1922), and architect Georges Guiauchain (1840-1908), who built several Moorish Revival retreats in El-Biar and Mustapha Supérieur.

The 2.4 hectare DCMR property and its residence is also significant in United States diplomatic history as part of the State Department’s post-World War II plans in the region, which included securing air transit and landing rights for a route that crossed North Africa, traversed the Middle East, and extended to New Delhi, Southeast Asia, and the Philippines. New buildings in the capital cities along the route were included in the plan, and Algiers was one of those capitals. The State Department reviewed plans for a new embassy there in 1957. While the Algerian War of Independence scuttled those ambitions, the United States displayed its commitment to diplomatic relations with Algeria by obtaining a lease for the Villa Oued El Kilaï property from its French owners on November 1, 1962 four months after Algeria gained its independence and a month after the two countries established relations, each raising their missions to embassy status. The size of the property at the time made it large enough for a new embassy compound. In 1966, after the Algerian government seized the property from its French owners, the State Department negotiated a new lease with host country. The United States acquired the site in 1983 by trading another property with the Algerian government, confirming its diplomatic

commitment. A new US Embassy was built on the Oued El Kilaï property in 2007.

PERIODS OF SIGNIFICANCE

The DCMR has two periods of significance. For resources significant for their design, the period of significance may be the date of construction and/or the dates of any significant alterations or additions. For the site of an important event, the period of significance is the time when the event occurred. For properties associated with historic trends or important contributions to the broad patterns of history, the period of significance is the span of time when the property actively contributed to the trends.

For design and construction, the period of significance extends from circa 1800 to 1935. This date range encompasses a consensus date for the original construction of the djnân and the date of a map that depicts the residence and terraced gardens in their current form. Such a range of time is necessary due to the lack of information that could specify construction campaigns in more detail. It was during this period that the original building, which makes up the core of the present property, was constructed, following an Ottomanperiod pattern of establishing country estates in the hills around the walled city of Algiers. This period of significance also includes the significant enlargement of the villa on the west and south, likely in multiple building campaigns during the French colonization of Algeria. The enlargement and redecoration of the villa adapted its Ottoman layout to European and American preferences, while the redesign of interior spaces manifest the tenets of Moorish Revival architecture carried out in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Algiers.

In the realm of US diplomatic history, the period of significance has been determined to extend from 1962 until 1966. Leasing the property from its French owners on November 1, 1962, displayed the United States’ commitment to relations with the newly independent state, barely a month after those relations were established. In 1966, after Algeria had seized ownership

1.4 Evaluation of Significance / DCMR (cont’d)

of the property from the absent French owners, the United States affirmed its diplomatic commitment to the country when it negotiated a new lease with the Algerian government, despite difficulties with another property in Algiers that the United States had purchased and despite seizures of portions of the Villa Oued El Kilaī. The United States ultimately acquired the villa in a trade with the Algerian government in 1983 and built a new embassy on the site in 2007.

ARCHITECTURAL AND LANDSCAPE INTEGRITY

Integrity, as regards historic preservation, is defined as the ability of a property to convey its significance. The aspects or qualities that, in various combinations, can establish the integrity of a historic property, according to the National Register of Historic Places, include location, setting, feeling, association, design, workmanship, and materials.2 Villa Oued El Kilaī is more than two hundred years old and has had multiple owners and occupants. Four wars have taken place in the vicinity of the djnân, and regime change has taken place twice. Algiers has expanded from its earlier walled limits to engulf the hills above, incorporating formerly outlying areas like the Sahel into the urban fabric. Despite these conditions, the villa retains a moderate degree of integrity, due largely to the enduring nature of the Ottoman-period initial construction and renovations during the French period, as well as the care taken by later owners, including the United States Government, to maintain the traditional aspects of its design while making upgrades necessary to satisfy its current use as a residence for the United States deputy chief of mission.

The DCMR retains a high degree of integrity for its location, which remains where it was originally constructed and enlarged. The villa’s setting, however, has been altered with the construction of the new embassy building, CAC, security fencing, walkways, and other elements. Close to the DCMR itself, the terraced gardens and courtyards maintain a setting similar to that which obtained during the period of architectural and landscape significance. The elements of design,

materials, and workmanship, can be found throughout the DCMR, both in the villa itself and its landscape. The Ottoman layout of the residence around its wast al-dār and including the sqâyaf (vestibules) used to control access to the house is still apparent, as are features such as hexagonal marble tile floors, tuff stone columns, wood joists supporting the gallery floors, and decorative ceramic tile floors, wainscot, and wall plaques (although some of the tilework represents later replacements). Moorish Revival decoration, such as the plaster ornament in the living rooms and niches, also illustrates design of the French period, as do the wood floors and ceilings in the additions to the Ottoman core. The terraced gardens and the courtyard with fountains and loggias also represent Algerian djnâyan. Because these three elements of integrity convey the building’s appearance during the period of significance, integrity in the categories of feeling and association is also present.

LEGAL STATUS (UNITED STATES)

Properties under the jurisdiction of the Department of State are guided by the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966, as amended (54 USC. 300101), Section 402 (54 USC. 307101e). Under Section 402, the Department of State is required to take into account the effects of its undertakings on historic properties listed or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, recognized by UNESCO World Heritage, and/or designated by the countries in which they are located. The purpose of this approach is to avoid, mitigate, or resolve adverse effects to historic properties caused by federal undertakings.

Outside the United States, the Department of State upholds the National Register of Historic Places through the compilation of the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) List of Significant Properties. This list is an inventory of overseas properties recognized for their architectural, cultural, and/or historical importance, identified following the same criteria established to determine eligibility for listing in the National Register.

2. This assessment is based on the National Park Service bulletin “How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation,” which provides guidelines for evaluating the integrity of a historic property. See Rebecca H. Shrimpton, ed., “National Register Bulletin 15: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation” (Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, revised 2002).

1.4 Evaluation of Significance / DCMR (cont’d)

In addition to the OBO List of Significant Properties, the Department of State maintains the Secretary of State’s Register of Culturally Significant Property. The Register is an honorific listing of United States’ diplomatic properties important to the nation’s international heritage. Properties in the Secretary of State’s Register are evaluated under seven criteria: 1) acknowledgement by a foreign government as significant, 2) encompassing an important part of US overseas heritage, 3) association with a significant person or event, 4) exemplifying important architecture or having been designed by an important architect, 5) embodying a distinctive theme or assembly, 6) functioning as a unique object or visual feature, or 7) importance as an archaeological site. Since 2010, all properties added to the register must also demonstrate their significance to the diplomatic history of the United States.

The Deputy Chief of Mission residence in Algiers, Villa Oued El Kilaï, is not recognized by UNESCO, nor is it listed in the Secretary of State’s Register of Culturally Significant Properties. It is, however, included in the State Department’s List of Significant Properties. The department therefore follows the guidelines contained in Section 402 of the National Historic Preservation Act in the DCMR’s treatment.

LEGAL STATUS (ALGIERS)

Under Algerian law, the regulations for identifying and registering national cultural heritage, defining the rules for its protection and preservation, and setting out the conditions for implementing those rules are codified in Law 98-04: Protection of Cultural Heritage (1998). This act categorizes immovable cultural property into historic monuments, archaeological sites, and urban or rural complexes. Algeria categorizes historic resources into three types, which include 1) entry in the additional inventory (l’inventaire supplémentaire), 2) classification (le classement), and 3) the creation of protected sectors (secteurs sauvegardés). The inventory is for cultural property that is of interest from the point of view of history, archaeology, science, ethnography, anthropology,

art, or culture. Resources are listed in the inventory by the Minister of Culture through consultation with the National Commission for Cultural Property, and cultural property recorded in the inventory that is not awarded final classification within ten years is removed from the list. Classification is a definitive protective measure and is also determined by the Minister of Culture through consultation with the National Commission for Cultural Property. Built or unbuilt areas surrounding a classified property are also protected as a means to safeguard its setting. Decrees for initiating classification or awarding classification are published in the “Official Journal of the Algerian Republic.”3 Protected sectors are urban or rural complexes that, due to their architectural and aesthetic unity, are of historical, architectural, artistic, or traditional interest and qualify for preservation. The city of Algiers has one protected sector, the Casbah. Regulations concerning the management of protected cultural property can be found in Executive Decree No. 03-322 of October 5, 2003, and the May 31, 2005, Executive Order of the Minister of Culture.

Research into the status of the DCMR under Algerian law has determined that, as of May 2022, the property is not listed in the inventory, it has not been the subject of a classification decision nor have classification proceedings been initiated, and it is not within a protected sector. The reason for this situation, however, is that the property is part of an embassy and therefore is considered to be in private ownership. The Ministry of Culture does consider the Villa Oued El Kilaï to have historical relevance, after visiting the site in 2015. Its historical importance lies in its history as a residence built in the hills around Algiers during the Ottoman period, one of only a few such buildings that remain. The Villa Oued El Kilaï has therefore “demonstrated an important historical and cultural heritage interest,” according to a letter from a representative of the Ministry of Culture to the United States in October 2015.4 The property legally, therefore, does not seem to be subject to local preservation ordinances, although the Ministry of Culture considers it to be an important part of its cultural heritage.

3. The “Official Journal of the Algerian Republic” can be found at https://www.joradp.dz/HFR/Index.htm.

4. Abdelouahab Zekagh, General Director de l’OGEBC, Ministry of Culture, People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, to Amy Schedlbauer, Deputy Chief of Mission, United States Embassy, Algiers, October 20, 2015.

1.5 Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR

METHODOLOGY

The following chapter provides a narrative description of the elements, materials, and spaces of the Villa Oued El Kilaï, the Deputy Chief of Mission Residence in Algiers, to establish a written record of the current character and appearance of the house and its landscape. This description supplements and enhances the architectural renderings, site plans, photographs, and other methods of documentation included in this report, all of which are intended to provide a basis for preservation planning.

The chapter is organized into three principal sections — exterior, interior, and landscape. The text describing the DCMR exterior begins with an overview that discusses the building’s style, shape, size, materials, and orientation, and then provides narrative descriptions of each elevation that note the character and appearance of major building elements and ancillary components. The physical description of the DCMR interior addresses the seven interior representational spaces identified in the scope of work. These include the Dining Room (Room 1001), Entry Hall (Room 1002), Corridor (Rooms 10051006), Living Rooms (Rooms 1016 and 1017), Receiving Hall (Rooms 1019-1020), and Atrium (Room 1021). Additional significant spaces surveyed during the site visit are also described. These rooms include the Sqîfa (Room 0001), the Hall (Room 0002), the Stair to the Atrium (Rooms 0017-1009), the Salon and Salon Alcove (Rooms 1013a and 1015), and the riyādh (Room 1014). Rooms not deemed representational spaces will be described in a general way. The western and northern sections of the building, which constitute the Fountain Court apartments, are beyond the scope of the HSR and will not be addressed in this chapter.

To supplement the written descriptions and photographs in this chapter, drawings depicting the DCMR as it currently exists can be found in Volume 2 of the HSR: plans of the representational rooms in Chapter 5, Existing Conditions Analysis; landscape drawings in Chapter 3, Landscape Existing Conditions; current floor plans in Appendix A, HABS Drawings; and historical plans in Appendix B, Reference Drawings. Additional current

photographs can be found in Appendix C, HABS Photographs. The landscape description is narrative in form and covers the DCMR’s immediate surroundings; the United States Embassy compound beyond the approach drive and paved apron on the east and beyond the garden walls on the south and are not included in the study area. Since, per the statement of work for the project (dated June 24, 2019), the study is a historic structure report (HSR), rather than a cultural landscape report (CLR) or a combination of the two, the present chapter, will not attempt to address the standard CLR landscape categories in a comprehensive manner, nor does the document include period plans that typically accompany a CLR. Rather, landscape features and their significance are described in detail and illustrated with photographs. The Lower Courtyard (3001) and the Upper Courtyard (3002) identified as representational spaces to be addressed in the project — will be documented here, along with other landscape features, including the entry sequence southeast of the residence and the L-shaped riyādh on the northeast.

In addition to providing physical descriptions, this chapter identifies the character-defining features of the DCMR and its landscape. Character-defining features are the physical elements and visual aspects of the residence and landscape that define their essential nature, embody the distinctive characteristics of their original design, and retain integrity. Integrity is understood as the degree to which a feature of a building or landscape helps to convey the property’s appearance during the period of significance. The identification of character-defining features can be used to develop appropriate maintenance and treatment strategies for the DCMR and to guide the ongoing stewardship of the resource.

Please note that observations of the DCMR structure during a replacement of the building's facade surface in 2022–2023 may affect the conclusions reached in this chapter. These observations were not received in time to be included in the HSR, but have been added as an appendix to the HSR's Volume II (Appendix E, Exterior Stucco Project 2023). This appendix should be consulted when determining construction dates for the different sections of the DCMR.

Figure 1.5.1

East façade of the Villa Oued El Kilaï, looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.3

The second floor window of the French-period section of the DCMR is located in a slight projection from the wall. Looking northwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.2

Steps and entrance in the French-period section of the DCMR, looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

1.5 Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

Additional notes on methodology:

- Following the convention used in other sections of this report, the building’s front entrance is described as a component of the east façade although its true compass orientation is north-northeast. Adhering to this model, the secondary facades are thus designated, in a clockwise direction, as south, west, and north.

- Each of the four principal facades of the DCMR is characterized by an asymmetrical arrangement of elements that makes it difficult to describe entirely using the standard convention of stories and bays. The narrative will employ this convention where possible, but will often describe the components of the building, such as Ottoman or French period construction, for narrative clarity.

- Certain built features of the DCMR mediate between the inward looking residence and the outside world. The entry sequence on the southeast, including the Compound Sqîfa, is enclosed or partially enclosed, while the arcaded section of the covered entrance hall to the west opens onto the courtyards and includes windows opening onto the Rosemary Terraces. The Riyādh east of the villa faces the courtyards, the terraced gardens, and the city beyond. As a result of the dual nature of these structures, and because they are not numbered rooms nor called out as representational spaces, they will be described as parts of the landscape.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CHARACTERDEFINING FEATURES:

EXTERIOR

The Villa Oued El Kilaï consists of three primary parts: the roughly square plan of the Ottoman core, an L-shaped addition on the north constructed during the period of French rule in Algeria, and another addition on the west that also dates to the French period. The whole is built into the side of a hill that declines to the southeast, south, and southwest. As a result, the Ottoman core stands three stories above ground on its south elevation and most of the east elevation, while the French period addition on the north consists of two aboveground stories. The DCMR’s load-bearing walls are constructed of rubble stone and mortar with smooth, painted stucco surfaces. The Ottoman part of the building employs a wood framing system to support floors and the roof,

while the French construction relies on brick arches resting on steel beams. The European additions resulted in a change of orientation for the residence, with a front door on the east elevation displacing the primary Ottoman entrance on the lowest level of the south elevation. Alterations to the Ottoman construction were also made during the French period, resulting in a hybrid style that combines both Ottoman and Moorish Revival elements in the older portion of the building, while the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century additions exhibit Moorish Revival decoration entirely. The layout of the Ottoman core retains its Algerian, rather than European, plan, with long narrow rooms arranged around and accessed from the wast al-dār, or Atrium (Room 1021), at the center of the house. Ottoman construction utilized domes on the roof to facilitate the movement of air through the house, and domes remain significant aspects of the residence’s elevations, although they no longer provide ventilation for the building. In recent years, cables and conduits have been attached to most of the elevations, usually in locations selected to diminish their prominence, and small utilitarian additions have been added to secondary elevations.

Physical Description: East Elevation (Figures 1.5.1 through 1.5.3)

The primary façade of the DCMR faces east. The current front door of the residence is located in this façade, in the northern section, which was added between 1883 and 1935, during the period of French rule. The southern part of the east façade dates primarily to the Ottoman period. The entire façade consists of white-painted stucco over masonry, divided by stucco stringcourses into three floors in the Ottoman section and two floors in the French period addition. Above the basement, floors remain at the same level due to the higher elevation at which the French period addition was built. A dogtooth masonry cornice marks the parapet wall above the third floor in both sections of the residence. Both the dogtooth cornice and the current parapet postdate the period of significance. The spandrels of the window arches in the north section, as well as the carved tuff stone surround of the front door, have been painted yellow.

At the southern end of the east elevation is a two-story addition from the French period. The basement level of the addition acts as a portico over the primary Ottoman

period entrance in the south wall of the residence. The east face of the addition at the basement level consists of a pointed, horseshoe-arched opening. The spandrels of the arch are decorated with painted ceramic tile, and a ceramic tile plaque with Arabic script is located in the wall above. Ceramic tiles form a post-period of significance baseboard on either side of the arched opening. The second floor of the addition is an ancillary room (Room 1017), known as a k’bou. Its east face consists of a double-arched window opening centered in the masonry wall with a small, round-arched opening above, originally functioning as part of the villa’s ventilation system. The window opening consists of round, horseshoe arches supported by a spiral-fluted column with scroll capital, reminiscent of the profile of a Gothic capital. A stucco hood molding and sill frame the window. Stained wood, casement windows of recent vintage have been installed behind the arched opening. The small round-arched opening above is filled with a single clear glass pane. The southeast corner of the k’bou is notched, with a small octagonal dome filling the space at floor level. The purpose of the notch and dome has not been determined, but may be related to ventilation of the interior.

The east façade of the Ottoman section of the DCMR is broken into three parts by a projecting bay at its center that also contains ancillary rooms. Windows set in the masonry walls between the stringcourses vary across the façade. On the basement level are a small rectangular window on the south and a larger rectangular window in the projecting bay with a small, round-arched opening above. Paired, recent, wood frame casements fill both window openings. The north section is only partially above grade and has no window. On the first floor, a rectangular opening provides illumination for first-floor rooms in both the north and south bays. The windows are each filled with a pair of recent wood frame casements. The south window has a flat drip molding and a small, round-arched opening above. The north bay window is located north of center. A double-arched opening pierces the center bay on the first floor, filled with recent wood frame casements with fixed wood frame transoms in the arches. The window frames stand outside the column supporting the arches. On the second floor, a doublearched window opening in the south bay provides natural light to the interior. It resembles the window in the firstfloor k’bou of the French period addition on the south. Unlike the k’bou window, however, the second-floor

column is not spiral in form and there are no moldings above or below the window. A rectangular window opening, with recent wood frame casements, is centered in the middle bay, while two such windows are located in the north bay.

The east façade of the French-period section of the villa lies in three planes. The south bay, containing the front door with a window and a chimney above continues the plane of the Ottoman-period construction. In the center, the east façade constitutes the east wall of the Dining Room on the first floor (Room 1001) and a bedroom on the second floor (Room 2000). This face of the villa projects forward from the south bay wall plane. The east face of the Kitchen (Room 1003a) and Bedroom 2 (Room 2002) makes up the north bay of the east façade and recedes from the south bay wall plane. The marble treads and risers of the steps to the front door are held between masonry cheek walls with black and white, checkered tiles on their upper surfaces. The carved, tuff stone door surround is decorated with crescent moons at the peak of the arch and in the spandrels. Metal bosses border the wood door within a wood frame with transom above. The date of the door is unknown but is thought to have been constructed in the Ottoman period. If so, it would have been salvaged from an Ottoman building for use in the French period addition. A wood and tile awning, added after 1993, shelters the door. The double arches of the window opening on the second floor of the south bay rest on a cylindrical column, and each arch has its own, undecorated spandrels. Recent wood casements are located behind the arches. In the center section of the French period façade, a typical pair of recent wood casements, with wood transoms above, fill the doublearched window opening, hiding the column supporting the arches. A small, round-arched opening above is filled with clear glass. The second-floor window is located in a slight projection of the wall that ends at the stringcourse, with stucco molding below. The window is double-arched with undecorated spandrels and a cylindrical column and is covered with a metal grille of unknown date. The north bay includes a small casement window at ground level and a typical rectangular window opening with recent wood frame casements, hood molding, and sill. The stepped faces of chimneys can be seen in the ell formed by the north bay of the east façade and the east end of the north façade. The chimneys rise above the top of the east façade’s parapet wall.

Character-Defining Features: East Elevation

- White-colored, stuccoed, masonry walls

- Three-story Ottoman section of the building and two-story French section

- Stucco stringcourses

- Location and decorative treatment of front entrance

- Location of window openingsdouble-arched form of windows in Rooms 1001 and 1020

- Rectangular window openings

- Projecting second-floor bay on second floor of French section (Room 2000)

- Round-arched, former ventilation openings

- Chimneys

- Dome profiles

Physical Description: South Elevation (Figures 1.5.4 through 1.5.10)

The south façade of the DCMR also includes both Ottoman and French period construction the south face of the Dining Room-Bedroom addition on the east is French, in the center is the Ottoman core of the building, and the French period Salon, Salon Alcove, and Riyādh (Rooms 1013a-1015) are on the west. French period additions continue west of the Riyādh. This construction, however, is part of the Fountain Court Apartments and is not covered in the scope for this project. The DCMR’s south elevation includes many of the same features found on the east façade, such as stucco stringcourses between the floors, double-arched and rectangular windows, and a post-period of significance dogtooth cornice below the parapet wall. Elements of the façade treatment, such as spandrels of the window arches, moldings above and below windows, and tuff stone door surrounds, are frequently painted yellow. The Ottoman period construction is also three stories in height, while the French construction rises two stories.

The Dining Room-Bedroom addition at the east end of the south elevation is divided into two floors. On the first floor, a stucco stringcourse runs below two rectangular window openings with flat hood moldings and sills. Each opening is filled with a pair of typical, recent, stained wood casements. The second floor consists of a small, roundarched, former ventilation opening in an otherwise blank eastern bay, a triple-arched window opening in the projecting middle bay (with three small, round-arched

openings above), and a rectangular window opening on the west. The triple-arched window and the ventilation openings above it postdate the period of significance. The projecting bay of this window ends at the stringcourse, with stucco molding below. Each arch in the projecting window has undecorated spandrels, and the columns are plain cylinders with a pair of astragals near the top suggesting a capital. Three recent, stained wood casement sash have been installed behind the three arches. The exterior faces of the small, round-arched openings above are filled with clear glass. A typical, recent pair of stained wood casements fills the rectangular window opening on the west. The blank parapet wall of the Dining Room-Bedroom addition is located above the dogtooth cornice marking the top of the second floor.

The south elevation of the Ottoman core of the building is composed of four bays. The easternmost bay is the south face of the k’bou projecting from the center of the east façade. The other three comprise the primary south façade of the Ottoman core of the building, with its own projecting center bay. On the south, however, the k’bou is two stories tall rather than three and was added during the French period, as was a small expanse of wall on the west (fronting Rooms 0004b and 1015). These additions created a symmetrical composition with the projecting k’bou in the center. The basement level of the k’bou on the east consists of a blank, stuccoed, masonry wall, marked at the top by a stucco stringcourse. The basement level of the k’bou on the south consists of a blank, pointed, horseshoe arch facing the terraced gardens. The south wall of the Ottoman era basement is visible, however, as that level of the projecting bay functions as a passage along the south façade. Four openings exist at the basement level in this façade, consisting of three windows and the entrance to the Sqîfa (Room 0001). A rectangular window opening with typical, recent, stained wood casement windows is centered in the easternmost bay, immediately adjacent to the Sqîfa The Sqîfa opening consists of a pointed, horseshoe arch framed with tile-surfaced spandrels. It is located below a stuccoed, short-span, brick and steel beam arch that represents a French period construction technique. A pair of walls built perpendicular to the south façade, with a blank masonry wall between them, separate the Sqîfa from the two remaining windows on the west side of the south elevation. A round-arched window is located immediately west of the west wall, providing light to Room

Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

Figure 1.5.4

Triple-arched window in the south elevation of the Dining Room-Bedroom addition, looking northwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.5

A similar triple-arched window is located on the south elevation of the k’bou. Looking northeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.6

The horseshoe-arched opening to the Sqîfa (Room 0001) in the Ottoman core of the DCMR, looking northwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.7

The remnant of an older window molding appears in the wall near the round-arched basement window. Looking northeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.8

Rectangular and double-arched windows in the south elevation, looking northeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.9

These three windows bear the attributes of openings constructed during the French period. Looking northeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.10

An arcade on the south elevation’s first floor marks the westernmost section of the DCMR. Looking northwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

0004a. The opening is filled with recent paired, stained wood casements below and a recent, semicircular, fixed transom above. Above the window to the east is a remnant of a molding similar to those supporting the projecting window bays in the Dining Room-Bedroom addition. The westernmost window in the south elevation of the DCMR’s basement is a small, nearly square opening with a flat hood molding above and a flower box below. The window sash is a pair of recent stained wood casements. A masonry knee wall of unknown date, but likely postdating the period of significance, is located along ground level on the west side of the south elevation’s basement floor.

A stucco stringcourse separates the basement level from the first floor. The south face of the east k’bou holds a rectangular window filled with a pair of typical, recent, stained wood casements. The window opening in the east bay of the primary south elevation has a similar window. In this location, however, the casements are located in front of a pair of arches resting on a column, rather than behind. The window is located in a section of wall that projects slightly from the wall plane, with moldings below, like the window on the second floor of the Dining Room-Bedroom addition. The moldings resemble the fragment located near the south elevation basement’s round-arched window. A hood molding diverts rain from the first-floor window. The center bay of the first floor, located in the French period k’bou, holds a triple-arched opening backed by typical, recent, stained wood casements. The columns are octagonal in their lower sections, fluted spirals above, with scroll capitals. The spandrels of the arches are undecorated. Above and below the window are stucco moldings like those associated with the first-floor window on the east elevation of the French period k’bou, and three small, round-arched openings with clear glass panes are grouped above the window. As with the same feature in the Dining Room-Bedroom addition, the triple-arched window and triple round-arched openings above postdate the period of significance. The elevation of the k’bou’s first floor is also “notched” on the east and west, with small, octagonal domes located at the base of the cut out sections. The west bay contains a double-arched opening backed by typical, recent, stained wood casements. The column is octagonal below, fluted spiral above, with a scroll capital. The window embellishment includes stucco moldings above and below and a round-arched ventilation opening with glass pane. The existing west window is set

slightly back from the wall plane on its east side, suggesting a larger opening existed here at one time.

The second floor of the Ottoman core’s south elevation, separated from the first floor by a stucco stringcourse, consists of two primary bays, since there is no third floor for the French addition to the west. Each bay contains a double-arched window opening employing cylindrical columns with astragals suggesting capitals, and both are backed by typical, recent, stained wood casements. The double-arched form of these windows post-dates the period of significance. Both have undecorated spandrels around the arches. The double-arched opening on the west, located above the French period k’bou, pierces a wall projecting from the surrounding wall. This projection provides for access to the roof terrace outside Room 2013. A small, rectangular opening, filled with a recent, stained wood sash is located between the two doublearched windows, and small, round-arched openings with clear glass panes are located west of this window and above the western double-arched window. The postperiod of significance dogtooth cornice and parapet wall run across the top of the Ottoman core’s south elevation.

The south elevation steps back west of the Ottoman core of the DCMR. This section of the elevation, added during the French period, fronts a portion of the Salon (Room 1013a) and Riyādh (Room 1014). The basement level elevation of this section of the building consists of a low stucco-covered wall with stucco-covered piers holding a horizontal wood rail in front of the building façade. The low wall and piers enclose a small planted area adjacent to the gravel path that runs along the south elevation of the DCMR. Three rectangular openings are located high in the basement wall, with metal grilles protecting windows. On the first floor, the section of the south elevation fronting Rooms 1013a and 1015 holds a pair of double-arched windows. The western window, its wall set back from the plane of the east window, postdates the period of significance. Both windows, however, are similar in detail. The columns supporting the arches are octagonal below, fluted spiral above, with scroll capitals. The arched openings are backed by typical, recent, stained wood casements. The window embellishment includes stucco moldings above and below and a round-arched former ventilation opening with glass pane. A short stretch of recent dogtooth cornice is located near the top of the first-floor wall. West of this window, and above the three

openings in the basement wall, is an arcade consisting of three arches supported by spiral-fluted stone columns with scroll capitals (two full columns, two half columns). The arcade fronts Room 1014. The columns have octagonal lower sections with a wood balustrade between them, and the balustrade is painted. The columns themselves are painted, as are the spandrels of the arches. The arches are framed with ceramic-tile hzâm and swâlaf, and a convex-concave, tile drip ledge covers this section of the elevation. The south elevation projects forward again west of the arcade, marking the DCMR’s junction with the Fountain Court Apartments.

Character-Defining Features: South Elevation

- White-colored, stuccoed masonry walls

- Three-story Ottoman section of the building and two-story French additions

- Stucco stringcourses

- Location of window openings (with the exception of the south window in Room 1013a)

- Double-arched form of window openings in Rooms 1015 and 1018

- Rectangular window openings

- Projecting bay and moldings of the east bay on first floor of the Ottoman core

- Sqîfa entrance

- Arcade on first floor of westernmost section of south elevation

- Round-arched former ventilation openings over character-defining windows

- Chimneys

- Dome profiles

Physical Description: West Elevation (Figures 1.5.11 through 1.5.13)

The west elevation of the DCMR encompasses elements of the Fountain Court Apartments, as well as sections of the Villa Oued El Kilaï set back from the housing. South of the apartment elevation lies part of the west elevation of the DCMR, comprised of two-story French construction, with the top floor of the Ottoman period building above. At the basement level, a pointed, horseshoe arch opens into the k’bou, continuing the passage along the south façade. Beyond the pointed arch, a round-arched doorway with carved, tuff stone surround provides access to the Sqîfa in the south wall and the courtyards farther east. The

basement level of the bay immediately north of the French addtion holds a rectangular window with a pair of typical, recent, stained wood, casement windows. The second floor of the west elevation, separated from the basement level by a stucco stringcourse, features a pair of French period, double-arched windows like those on the south elevation. Both have small, round-arched openings with clear glass panes above. Also seen in the first-floor west elevation is the face of the chimney tucked into the angle between the k’bou and the Ottoman core of the building. The stucco stringcourse marking the top of the first floor continues around the chimney; parapet walls rise above. The second floor of the west elevation in this location includes the west face of the projection from Room 2013 and its recent, stained wood, casement window, which doubles as a door opening onto the roof terrace. The window has a wood lintel. A segment of post-period of significance dogtooth cornice is located higher on the wall. The cornice is also seen on the chimney in the angle of the k’bou and the Ottoman core and turns the corner to cross the west face of the second floor. This chimney, along with a second one near the southwest corner of the Ottoman building, rise above the second-floor parapets. The remainder of the secondfloor west elevation is blank except for a small window toward the north end of the wall, which lights Room 2014. Profiles of the domes at the roof level are visible above the second-floor parapet wall.

The west elevation of the DCMR north of the Fountain Court Apartments consists of the west façade of the current kitchen area (Rooms 1003a, 1003b, and 1004) and the rooms above (Rooms 2002, 2003a, and 2003b). Two small, rectangular windows with wood casements are located at ground level in this section of the DCMR, lighting basement rooms. A modern, one-story appendage with a round-arched opening and a concaveconvex tile drip ledge is attached at the south end of the west kitchen wall. The first floor of the west kitchen elevation itself has a complex profile. The south section of the wall stands back from the west kitchen wall; the two are linked by an angled section of wall. The recessed area contains stairs between the basement and the first floor and is lit by a small round-arched opening. The north end of the kitchen angles outward to create a corbeled overhang. The first floor of the kitchen is pierced by two rectangular window openings — a larger one on the south, a smaller one on the north. The larger opening

Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

Figure 1.5.13

The west elevation of the French period north addition, looking east. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.12

Chimneys rise above the roofline in the center section of the west façade. Looking southeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.11

The west elevation of the Ottoman core’s southern section, looking east. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

1.5

Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR

appears to date to the period of significance. Recent, paired, stained wood casements fill both openings, and both have a flat hood molding above. Above each window is a small, round-arched, former ventilation opening filled with a clear glass pane. A third such opening is located south of the other two. Pipes and cabling obscure the stringcourse between the first and second floors on the west. The second floor consists of three bays. The south bay contains a typical rectangular window with recent, paired, stained wood casements, topped by a flat hood molding with a small, round-arched opening above. A metal grille is fixed to the wall around this window. A similar arrangement of typical rectangular window, hood molding and sill, protective metal grille, and round-arched opening is located to the north, in the primary wall plane of the second floor. In the northernmost bay is a triplearched window opening that dates to the period of significance. As with the double-arched openings in French period construction, the columns on which the arches rest are octagonal in their lower sections, fluted spirals above, and have scroll capitals. The spandrels of the arches are undecorated. Above and below the window are stucco moldings, and a round-arched ventilation opening stands above the window. Unlike other arched windows at the DCMR, this one employs Algerian arches (also known as arc algerois or basket-handle arches).

Marking the top of the first floor is a post-period of significance dogtooth cornice; just below is a series of perforations in the masonry façade. A chimney extends above the parapet near its north end.

Character-Defining Features: West Elevation

- White-colored, stuccoed, masonry walls

- Three-story Ottoman section of the building and two-story French additions

- Stucco stringcourses

- Pointed, horseshoe-arched opening at basement level in k’bou

- Double-arched form of window opening in room 1015rectangular window openings (except for the northernmost window on the first floor)

- Round-arched former ventilation openings above period of significance windows

- Chimneys

- Dome profiles

Physical Description: North Elevation (Figures 1.5.14 through 1.5.16)

The north elevation of the DCMR comprises French period additions on the east and west and a small section of the building’s Ottoman core between the additions. On the west end of the elevation is the blank exterior wall of Room 1014, with the exterior wall of the Salon immediately to the east. Both were constructed during the period of French rule. At the lower level of the Salon section, below a stucco stringcourse (obscured by conduits and cables), is a boarded-up rectangular opening on the west and a small, post-period of significance appendage on the east. The appendage has a small, round-arched door in its west face and a smaller round-arched opening on the north face. A dogtooth cornice runs near the top of the appendage on the west, north, and east sides. The north face of the Salon is located above this lower level. It contains of a pair of typical, recent, stained wood casements in a rectangular opening on the west and a single such casement on the east. Both windows have a flat hood molding and a sill below, along with a small round-arched opening above. Between these windows, higher in the wall, is a row of five small, round-arched openings. All five are covered with clear glass panes. Near the top of the wall is a continuation of the post-period of significance dogtooth cornice. East of the French period construction is a three-story section of wall that is part of the Ottoman core of the DCMR. The basement level is fronted by a recent projecting wall that includes a door on the west and rectangular opening on the east. A rectangular window opening is located in both the first- and secondfloor walls, aligned above each other. The openings are filled with typical, recent, stained wood casements and have flat hood moldings and sills. A smaller rectangular opening with a recent casement window is located on the second floor, east of its pair of casements. Above the second floor, marking the beginning of the parapet wall, a modern dogtooth cornice continues from the west façade across the north façade.

Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

Figure 1.5.14

This section of the north façade includes both French period (right) and Ottoman construction. Looking southeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.15

The west corner of the kitchen section of the north elevation is corbeled outward. Looking southwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.17

A round-arched doorway in the structure supporting a round dome provides access to the roof. Looking west. (T. Whitney Cox, 2022)

Figure 1.5.18

The dome over the Atrium includes windows to allow light into the interior. Looking south. (T. Whitney Cox, 2022)

Figure 1.5.16

The north elevation of the Dining RoomBedroom addition, looking south. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

opening on the west holds HVAC equipment, while a rectangular window opening is located at the ground level to the east, lighting the basement. Above the segmental arched opening, the wall corbels outward. Above the basement window is a rectangular window opening filled with a pair of typical, recent, stained wood casements. A round-arched former ventilation opening is located above the window, with a circular, exhaust opening to the east. The wall above the stucco stringcourse between the first and second floors is blank. The north face of a chimney, with its corbeled base, is located on the first floor in the Dining Room-Bedroom section of north elevation at its junction with the projecting Kitchen-Bedroom. It continues up the wall and above the roof. Immediately east of the chimney, a rectangular window opening pierces the wall. It is filled with three recent, stained wood casements with fixed rectangular transoms above. The round, interior arches located inboard of this window can be viewed through the transoms. A small rectangular opening is located above the larger opening. The current arched form of the larger window and likely the smaller rectangular window above postdate the period of significance. The first floor wall is blank east of the three-casement window. On the second floor of the Dining Room-Bedroom section, above the stucco stringcourse, are two rectangular window openings. One is aligned with the three-casement window on the first floor. The other is located to the east, on the other side of a drainpipe. The eastern window lighting Room 2000 postdates the period of significance. The window openings each hold a pair of typical, recent, stained wood casements that are protected by a flat hood molding above. The remaining segment of the second-floor wall is blank. A modern dogtooth cornice is located above the second floor, marking the beginning of the parapet.

Character-Defining Features: North Elevation

- White-colored, stuccoed, masonry walls

- Stucco stringcourses

- Rectangular window openings (except the east window in Room 2000)

- Round-arched ventilation openings

- Chimneys

- Dome profiles

Physical Description: Roof (Figures 1.5.17 through 1.5.18)

The flat roof of the Ottoman core of the DCMR is punctuated with five octagonal domes and one round dome. The French period additions also feature flat roofs, and two domes are located in the north addition to the original building. Four of the domes are mounted on low square structures; the other two rise directly from the roof. Parapet walls border the various sections of the roof. There are also a small number of modern additions on the roof, and the flat roof surfaces are modern, as is the finish treatment of the domes themselves.

Access to the roof is gained from the round-domed structure, located against the west parapet wall. A roundarched, wood door in the east face of the dome structure leads a stair against the west wall of the Ottoman core of the DCMR. A round-arched, carved, tuff stone surround frames the door, and a stucco molding is located above, protected by a concave-convex, tile drip ledge. The domes initially acted as part of the passive cooling system of the Ottoman construction, with openings allowing for the escape of hot air from the interior. These openings have all been sealed. The dome over the Atrium (Room 1021) was added during the French period. It retains semicircular windows in its square sides and round-arched openings with glass-covered, ornamental stucco grilles to allow light into the interior. A stucco molding runs around the square structure, sheltered by a concave-convex, tile drip ledge. Another dome features round-arched windows in three of its sides and a dogtooth cornice. It is attached on one side to a modern structure. The square structures supporting the domes are surfaced in white stucco, and the domes themselves are also painted white. This treatment emulates the historical appearance of domed villas in the Sahel.

Character-Defining Features: Roof

- Form of roof with parapet walls, flat surface punctuated by domes (although not the roof materials)

- White-painted octagonal domes and supporting structures (with the exception of the dogtooth cornice structure)

- White-painted round dome, supporting structure, door surround, and molding

Figure 1.5.19

Exterior wall of the Sqîfa, with tile decoration. Looking northwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

1.5 Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CHARACTERDEFINING FEATURES: INTERIOR

Physical Description: Sqîfa (Room 0001) (Figures 1.5.19 through 1.5.21)

The Villa Oued El Kilaï was built near the crest of a hill. The level currently considered the basement is above grade on the south, and the Ottoman builders placed the villa’s primary entrance on the south side of the house to take advantage of this condition. During the Ottoman period, residences used a vestibule, known as a Sqîfa, as the point of entry. It was usually located at a right angle from the approach to the house, providing visitors no direct view of the entrance until they were led to it. A Sqîfa included an opening in the exterior wall and a heavy wood door opposite this opening that led to the lower level of the house. Benches where visitors could be seated while waiting to enter the house, known as duqqâna, were built into the Sqîfa’s side walls. Room 0001 of the Villa Oued El Kilaï contains all these features.1

The exterior opening into Room 0001 is located within a portico that is part of an addition constructed during the period of French rule in Algeria. The opening is in the south wall of the villa. The spandrels surrounding the pointed, horseshoe arch of the exterior opening to the Sqîfa are currently decorated with painted tiles; the intrados is stucco painted white. A recent, rectangular, gray marble threshold lies beneath the arch, while the floor of the Sqîfa is of gray marble laid in a diamond pattern. The tiles are similar to those around the perimeter of the Atrium and may therefore, like the Atrium tiles, represent later replacement of the original flooring. Painted stucco covers the walls. Each of the duqqâna (one on both the east and west walls) consists of two Algerian arched niches separated by a painted stone column in a spiral form with scroll capitals. The currently unadorned sills of the niches constitute the seating areas. Painted ceramic tiles surface the walls of the niches.

The door to the residence is located opposite the exterior opening of the Sqîfa, in its north wall. Centered in the painted stucco wall is a carved, tuff stone, round-arched opening employing ornament typical of the Ottoman

period — eight-pointed stars (two intersecting squares), flowers, and foliate motifs. A stained wood door using squares, rectangles, and diamonds for decoration, fills the opening. Holes in the form of eight-pointed stars in the wood transom over the door allow light and air into the interior. The dates of the door and transom are unknown; they may represent Ottoman period work salvaged from another property. Three ventilation openings also mark this wall round-arched openings flank the doorway, while a square opening surmounts it. The groin-vaulted ceiling with rib beading is painted stucco, with a postperiod of significance lantern hanging from its center.

An examination of the materials in Room 0001 indicate that the Sqîfa has had more repairs than some of the other rooms within the Ottoman footprint of the villa, completed with modern materials. These materials, especially acrylic paints, have obscured the carvings in the stone elements. The examination did not discover Ottoman-period mortars in Room 0001, although Ottoman stucco was found, and the Hall (Room 0002) did contain mortars from the period.2

Character-Defining Features: Sqîfa (Room 0001)

- Pointed, horseshoe-arched opening in south wall

- Gray marble tile floor?

- Stucco walls

- Benches (duqqâna) in side walls

- Groin-vaulted masonry ceiling

- Carved tuff stone door surround

- Stained wood door with transom?

- Ventilation openings in north wall

Physical Description: Hall (Room 0002) (Figures 1.5.22 through 1.5.25)

The basement level of the Villa Oued El Kilaï would have been used for conducting business or meeting visitors during the Ottoman period. The Hall (Room 0002) functioned as the circulation hub of this area, with rooms located to either side for consultations. The Hall continues the diamond-patterned, gray marble tile floor of the Sqîfa. This tile is also used on the landing of the Stair to the first floor (Rooms 0017 and 1009), as well as around

1. There is a second sqîfa just inside the wall bordering the grounds on the east. This will be designated the “entrance sqîfa” and will be discussed with the landscape features.

2. US Department of State, Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, Office of Cultural Heritage, “Analysis and Documentation of the Renders and Finishes at Oued El Kilaï , US Deputy Chief of Mission Residence in Algiers: Executive Summary,” October 2020, 2-3.

Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

Figure 1.5.20

Duqqâna built into the east wall of the Sqîfa. Looking northeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.21

The north wall of Room 0001 holds a wood door that provides access to the basement level of the DCMR. Looking north. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.23

Doors open off the Hall on the east and west, leading to smaller rooms. Looking south toward Room 0001. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.24

The tuff stone surround of the door to the Stair is similar to the surround in the Sqîfa. Looking north. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.22

The stair to the first floor is located at the north end of the Room 0002. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.25

Three niches are located in the lateral walls of the Hall, including this one in the west wall. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

1.5 Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

the perimeter of the Atrium (Room 1021). The floors in the latter two spaces are laid in a horizontal grid, rather than in the diamond pattern of the hall. Like most of the rooms on the first floor, the walls of Room 0002 feature decorative tile wainscot with painted plaster above. Two arc algerois niches, with decorative tile backs and sides, are located in the west wall, one at the south end of the east wall. The continuity between the Hall, the stair, and the first-floor rooms in these decorative features and materials indicates the importance of this space in the hierarchy of the residence’s rooms.

Doorways on the east, west, and north include roundarched, carved, tuff stone surrounds and stained wood doors. The doors do not employ the square, rectangular, and diamond ornament of other doors in the house and are likely later replacements. The carved tuff surround of the doorway to the stair features a round-arched opening within a rectangular surround, as does the doorway in the north wall of the Sqîfa. (The obverse side of this opening in Room 0002 is unornamented save for the tile wainscot. It also features a wood lintel.) The ceiling of the Hall consists of three plastered, masonry groin vaults a larger one in the center, with smaller vaults to the north and south. The rooms off the Hall also employ masonry vaults. This includes Room 0008 in the northeast corner, which reportedly once held a cistern for gathering rainwater from the roof. The vaulting formed part of the structural system supporting the floors above.

Character-Defining Features: Hall (Room 0002)

- Marble tile floor?

- Decorative ceramic tile wainscot with plaster walls above

- Wood lintel over door to Room 0001

- Ventilation openings in south wall

- Carved, tuff stone door surrounds

- Arc algerois niches with decorative ceramic tile backs and sides

- Plaster-covered, masonry groin vaults

Physical Description: Stair (Room 0017-1009) (Figures 1.5.26 through 1.5.28)

The half-turn stair that reaches the Atrium from the Hall consists of recent marble treads and landings, decorative ceramic tile wainscot with plaster walls above, and

masonry, groin-vaulted ceilings. The exception to this description is the ceiling of the uppermost flight of stairs, which consists of an octagonal dome. The ribs of the groin vaults are beaded. The wall and ceiling-mounted light fixtures postdate the period of significance. As mentioned previously, the decorative elements employed in the Stair (Rooms 0017 and 1009) suggest the importance of this space as a continuation of the villa’s primary Ottoman circulation from its entrance to the wast al-dār, the central room of the house.

Character-Defining Features: Stair (Room 0017-1009)

- Half-turn stair form

- Marble tile floor?

- Decorative ceramic tile wainscot with plaster walls above

- Plaster-covered, masonry groin vaults

- Masonry octagonal dome above upper flight of stairs

Physical Description: Dining Room (Room 1001) (Figures 1.5.29 through 1.5.33)

The Dining Room (Room 1001) was likely part of the expansion of the Villa Oued El Kilaï that took place between 1883 and 1935. Its construction took place during a time when Moorish Revival design became popular with Europeans and Americans residing or wintering in Algiers. The room features wood plank floors and wood baseboards. A Star of David (two intersecting triangles) marks the center of the wood ceiling, from which a post-period of significance chandelier hangs. A modest plaster crown molding makes the transition from the ceiling to the plaster walls. A circular vent of unknown date is located below the west window on the south wall, cutting into part of the baseboard. A recent investigation revealed painted Arabic script in a band around the room at about chair-rail height. The writing is visible in the northwest and southeast corners of the room.

Two rectangular window openings pierce the south wall. They are filled by stained-wood casement windows with white tile sills. The wood frames and the tile sills are both of recent vintage. Above the windows are small arched openings formerly used for ventilation. One is filled with a clear glass pane, the other with a plaster grille holding colored glass; the date of the glass insertions are not known. At the center of the east wall is a double,

1.5 Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR

horseshoe-arched opening holding two, recent, woodframed, casement windows with recent white tile sills. The arches rest on double marble columns in an east-west alignment, which replaced an earlier single column after the period of significance. Colored glass fills the transoms in the arches held by plaster grillework featuring an eight-pointed star motif. Two niches, each with an Algerian arch, and wood cabinet doors with geometric decoration flank a fireplace in the center of the west wall. The fireplace hearth includes a raised marble edge bordering a black-and-white checkered tile field. Decorative tiles frame the fireplace within a decorative surround of plaster or stone currently painted white. Decoration of the surround includes a flower within a crescent moon at the center of the horizontal piece, from which a rope motif punctuated by flowers extends on each side. A horizontal, decorative tile panel mediates between the fireplace surround and the narrow mantel, also made of painted stone or plaster. An undecorated, pointed-arch opening in the south wall leads to the Entry Hall (Room 1002).

Character-Defining Features: Dining Room (Room 1001)

- Wood floor and baseboards

- Plaster walls, including painted arabic script and plaster crown molding

- Wood ceiling with star of david motif

- Rectangular window openings and small, round-arched openings on east wall

- Double, horseshoe-arched window opening on east wall (not including marble columns and colored glass and plaster, islamic star motif grilles in transoms)

- Fireplace, including stone or plaster and tile surround and mantel

- Arc algerois niches with wood cabinet doors in north wall

- Pointed-arch opening to Room 1002 in west wall

Physical Description: Entry Hall (Room 1002) (Figures 1.5.34 through 1.5.39)

The Entry Hall is located west of the Dining Room and was likely part of the expansion of the Villa Oued El Kilaï that took place between 1883 and 1935. The space includes tile floors composed of both older and more recent replacements of the tile pattern. The tiles are arranged so that their decoration creates a diamond pattern. A section

of the floor on the north, just below the triple-arched window, has a different type of decorative tile. The lower portions of the walls have a tile wainscot capped with a plaster molding. The tiles composed of a white background on which a yellow X-shaped motif is set, inscribed with a blue-and-white flower or star closely resemble those used on the second floor gallery in the CMR (Villa Montfeld). Above the wainscot on all four walls are painted plaster surfaces; they are embellished with decorative tile panels. The crown molding at the top of the wall features a white plaster frieze composed of painted lozenges and diamonds beneath a typically western curved molding transitioning to the ceiling. The ceiling is constructed of wood boards laid in an east-west direction with intersecting applied wood moldings set diagonally in relation to the ceiling boards, creating a diamond pattern that echoes the diamond pattern of the floor tiles.

The east wall of Room 1002 includes the door to the exterior, which became the main access to the house when the north addition was constructed, and the paired doors to the Dining Room. The door is set in a trabeated opening; it is a wood, board-and-batten door with a modern lock as well as older locks and hardware. It is thought to date to the Ottoman period. The door, set in a wood frame, incorporates a rectangular window with bars. The doorway includes a marble threshold. Above the door is a small, arched opening with colored glass held by a plaster grille. The doors to dining room, north of the doors to the exterior, are likely salvaged from an older structure and display a characteristic Ottoman and Moorish Revival form a pattern of raised, vertical and diagonal, larger and smaller, rectangular wood panels within wood stiles and rails. Parts of the door have obviously been replaced. A small, operable door is located in the lower portion of each panel, a typical Ottoman-period device adopted in Moorish Revival design.

An undecorated, pointed-arch opening in the south wall of Room 1002 leads to Room 1005. Decorative tile panels in the plaster walls flank the opening; another, with Arabic script, is located above the arch. This is the panel that indicates that the Villa Oued El Kilaï was built in the year 1111 A.H. (ca. 1700 AD) by Ahmed Ben Mohammed. The wall on which the panel is mounted was an exterior wall during the Ottoman period. If there was a doorway in this location, it would likely have been of secondary importance, the main access being provided by the house

Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

Figure 1.5.27

The Stairs have vaulted ceilings. Looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.28

An octagonal dome is located above the upper flight of stairs. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.29

The wood ceiling in Room 1001, looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.26

Villa Oued El Kilaï’s primary Stairs (Rooms 0017-1009) link the Hall with the Atrium. Looking south. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.30

Rectangular window openings in the south wall of Room 1001, looking southeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.31

Double-arched windows in the east wall of Room 1001, looking east. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.32

The north wall of Room 1001 features two arc algerois niches, a fireplace, and painted Arabic script. Looking northwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.33

Room 1001 includes older and more recent decorative tiles and carved ornament in the fireplace surround. Looking northwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.34

Two patterns of floor tiles in Room 1002. Looking east. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.35

Wainscot in Room 1002 is composed of decorative yellow, blue, and white tiles. Looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.36

One of eight decorative tile panels in Room 1002. Looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.37

The crown molding in Room 1002 includes painted geometrical ornament and a curved transitional element. Looking east. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.38

The diamond pattern of the wood ceiling in Room 1002 echoes the pattern in the tile floor. Looking north. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.39

The east wall of Room 1002 includes the exterior door and doors to the Dining Room. Looking northeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Sqîfa on the south side at what is now the basement level. It seems likely, therefore, that the panel was moved to this location during the expansion of the villa during the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries and may have been among the materials salvaged from other properties for use in the expansion.

The west wall includes a wood door to Room 1004 on the north and a double-arched niche opposite the Dining Room doors. The niche postdates the period of significance. A tile panel is located above the door to Room 1004, which has a wood frame with beaded panels allowing for airflow between the two rooms. Another, post-period of significance tile panel is located between the door and the double-arched niche. As in the Dining Room window, the two horseshoe arches in the niche rest on twin marble columns aligned in an east-west direction. The arches are recessed in a rectangular panel, and the corners feature a reed molding topped by carved leaves or petals. The north wall includes a post-period of significance, tripartite window opening with two painted columns of either plaster or stone supporting three horseshoe arches set in rectangular recesses. Three recent, wood-framed, casement windows with glazed transoms fill the openings. The marble sill of the window appears to be constructed of two pieces perhaps built up to meet salvaged columns. The opening above the triple-arched window is filled with a colored glass element that differs from any other in the villa. Since the floor below the window also shows changes to what were likely the original floor tiles, the differences between the tripartite window, the niche, and Dining Room window likely indicate alterations in Room 1002 after original construction.

Character-Defining Features: Entry Hall (Room 1002)

- Decorative tile floors and wainscot

- Plaster walls with decorative tile panels and crown molding (except the tile plaque on the west wall)

- Wood ceiling

- Wood exterior door with small arched opening above - Wood double doors closing pointed-arch opening to Dining Room (Room 1001)

- Pointed-arch opening to Room 1005

- Wood door to Room 1004?

Physical Description: Corridor (Rooms 1005-1006) (Figures 1.5.40 through 1.5.49)

The Swanke Hayden Connell report on the DCMR indicates that Rooms 1005, 1006, 1018, 1019, and 1020 all located within the Ottoman footprint of the building constituted a single space during the Ottoman period. Today, Rooms 1005 and 1006 together considered the Corridor connect the Entry Hall (Room 1002) to the Atrium (Room 1021). Room 1005 is square in plan with pointed arches on all four sides. Room 1006 is a narrow rectangle with a niche on the east wall, an arched opening to the Atrium on the west, and a rectangular door to Room 1019 in a partition wall on the south. The two rooms share the same tile pattern in the center of their floors as Room 1002, but the tiles in the Corridor appear to be older than those in the Entry Hall. Rooms 1005 and 1006 also use two different tile patterns as borders, while the tiles in the Entry Hall are consistent, except for those near the north window.

The walls of Room 1005 consist of decorative tile wainscot beneath plaster upper surfaces. Pointed arches mark all four walls. The north arch, leading to Room 1002 is undecorated; the east, south, and west arches feature scalloped intradoses. Such decorative treatment, also known as “lobed” or “multifoil,” were common in the medieval Islamic architecture of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula and were also used by Moorish Revival architects. On the east wall, the arch surrounds a rectangular window opening holding recent, wood-framed, casement sash and modern white tile sill. Colored glass in plaster grillework fills the small arched opening above the window. The arch in the south wall opens into Room 1006, while the arch in the west wall creates a shallow niche. The crown molding in the room consists of a band of repeating, curved shapes with a bright, polychromatic, painted finish in a white frame beneath Western-style curved moldings. The ceiling is white plaster with a circular medallion with arabesque decoration. It holds a post-period of significance chandelier.

The wainscot in Room 1006 continues the tile pattern of Room 1005, with the exception of a small section on the east wall. Plaster surfaces the walls above the wainscot, and the crown molding below its flat plaster ceiling matches that of Room 1005. The scalloped intrados of the archway between the two parts of the corridor marks the

Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

Figure 1.5.41

A double-arched niche mirroring the east window in the Dining Room is located on the west wall of Room 1002. Looking southwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.40

Over the pointed-arch opening to Room 1005 is a tile plaque suggesting a date of 1700 for the Villa Oued El Kilaï. The plaque may have been salvaged from another property. Looking south. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.42

A tripartite window in the north wall provides illumination to Room 1002. Looking north. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.43

Floor tiles in Rooms 1005 and 1006 appear older than those in Room 1002. Looking north. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.44

Scalloped intrados in the east wall of Room 1005. Looking southeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

1.5 Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

Figure 1.5.45

The blank arch in the west wall of Room 1005 creates a shallow niche. Looking southwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.46

The arabesque-patterned ceiling medallion in Room 1005. Looking north. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.47

Niche in the east wall of Room 1006. Looking east. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.48

Partition wall between Rooms 1006 and 1019. Looking south. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.49

Pointed-arch opening from Room 1006 to Room 1021. Looking southwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.50

Diamond pattern in the herringbone wood floor of the Grand Salon. Looking south. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.51

The east wall of Room 1013a includes the door to Room 1022 as well as three decorated niches. Looking southeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

1.5

Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR

north wall of Room 1006. A niche with a scalloped arch and tiled wall, sides, and floor is located in the east wall. On the south, a post-period of significance rectangular door opening, filled with a scalloped frame holding a wood door patterned with rectangles and squares in the Algerian manner, provides access to Room 1019. A wood shelf supported by brackets is located over the door. The west wall contains a plain, pointed-arch opening near its south corner that provides access to the Atrium. The wainscot tile matches that in the rest of Room 1006. A circular, metal HVAC plate is located in the lower north corner of the wainscot. Plaster surfaces the walls above the wainscot.

Character-Defining Features: Corridor (Room 1005)

- Tile floors, tile wainscot, plaster walls & crown molding

- Plaster ceiling with arabesque medallion

- Pointed arches on all four walls, including scalloped intrados on east, south, and west arches

- Rectangular window opening in east wall

Character-Defining Features: Corridor (Room 1006)

- Tile floors, tile wainscot, plaster walls & crown molding

- Pointed arch on north wall, including scalloped intrados

- Arc algerois niche in east wall

- Pointed-arch opening to Atrium (Room 1021)

Physical Description: Salon and Salon Alcove (Rooms 1013a and 1015)

(Figures 1.5.50 through 1.5.57)

The Salon and Salon Alcove (Rooms 1013a and 1015) are reached from the Ottoman core of the house via a door in the east wall that opens onto the stair landing (Room 1022), which also connects to the Atrium. The salon is located outside the Ottoman core of the villa but was built during the period of significance. Looked at in plan, it is possible to conclude that the size of Room 1015 was determined by the desire to create a symmetrical south elevation, with the k’bou (Room 1017, also outside the Ottoman core), centered in the façade. Room 1013a’s oblong rectangle has two small rooms set against its north wall (Rooms 1011b and 1013a). A shallow rectangular projection setback on the west wall contains a fireplace. On the other side of the west wall is Room 1014, which is reached by a vertical board wood door in the south wall of the fireplace setback.

The floor of Room 1013a is constructed of wood laid in a herringbone pattern with a row of five diamonds in an east-west direction across the center. The walls are painted plaster with stained wood baseboards and plaster crown molding below a stained wood plank ceiling with a diamond-patterned wood molding. In the center of the ceiling is a larger diamond motif in wood from which a non-period of significance chandelier hangs. The east wall contains the door to the stair landing and the Atrium beyond, as well as three shallow, Algerian arch niches. The door, which has a wood lintel with a wood shelf above, is composed of diamonds and rectangles in a basket weave pattern. Each of the niches is decorated with carved plaster molding. Above the outer two niches are roundarched ventilation openings with ornamental carved plaster grilles. The west wall includes two of the nicheventilation grille combinations, one on each side of a round arch fronting the setback containing the fireplace. The south niche was added after the period of significance. Both the intrados of the arch framing the fireplace and the spandrels are decorated with intricate carved plaster ornament repeating a variety of geometrical and foliate forms. The corners of the wall below the plaster ornament include the motif of a reed topped by carved leaves or petals that is found in Rooms 1002, 1016, and 1017. The niche in Room 1002 that employs this detail was added after the period of significance. The fireplace covers the width of the west wall within the shallow setback. It is composed of a raised marble hearth border, decorative tile hearth floor and firebox surround, and an marble border enclosing the firebox and its surround. The fireplace is set in a decorative tile wall below a marble mantel. A small carved plaster niche is located in the center of the tiled surface, between the fireplace and the mantel.

Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

Figure 1.5.52

The wood ceiling of the Grand Salon includes a diamond motif at its center. Looking north. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.54

Niches flank the arch framing the fireplace in the west wall of Room 1013a. Looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022))

Figure 1.5.53

The door between Room 1013a and 1022 displays a basketweave pattern. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.55

The north wall of Room 1013a. Looking north. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.56

Detail of the stucco ornamentation of the arch and wall at the north end of Room 1013a. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.57

Room 1015, south of Room 1013a, includes windows in its south and west walls. Looking south. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

1.5 Physical Description & Character-Defining Features

essentially an extension of the Salon. Room 1015 has wood floors and baseboards, plaster walls, crown molding, and wood ceiling with a diamond pattern and a central diamond motif from which a light fixture hangs. It also has windows in its south and west walls, which consist of recent, stained wood casements inboard of a pair of round, horseshoe arches falling on a stone column. A similar window is located in the south wall of Room 1013a. The window in 1013a was added after the period of significance. Small round-arched openings with decorative plaster grilles holding colored glass are located above all three windows.

Character-Defining Features: Salon and Salon Alcove (Rooms 1013a and 1015)

- Wood floors, including the diamond-pattern in Room 1013a

- Wood baseboards, plaster walls & plaster crown molding

- Wood ceilings, including the central diamond motifs in Rooms 1013a and 1015

- Plaster arches with carved geometrical and foliate ornament

- Round-arched openings with decorative plaster grilles and colored glass, including the plaster ornament surrounding the round-arched openings on the north wall of Room 1013a

- Fireplace, including marble and tile surround and mantel

- Niches with carved plaster ornament (except for the south niche in the west wall of Room 1013a)

- Horseshoe-arched form of window openings in Room 1015wood door to Room 1022?

Physical Description: Riyādh (Room 1014) (Figures 1.5.58 through 1.5.61)

Room 1014 is located immediately west of the Salon and is reached through a wood plank door in the south wall of the fireplace projection in Room 1013a. The south face of the door, in Room 1014, is covered with sheet metal and contains a perforated pattern illustrating a crescent moon with stars at the cardinal points. The pattern is used four times on the door. The door replaced an earlier door after 1986. Room 1014 has a terrazzo floor, tile wainscot with plaster walls above, and a flat plaster ceiling. The space is divided by an arch resting on spiral fluted columns. South of the arch, a painted, ceramic tile border lies directly below the ceiling. North of the arch, a narrow, plain plaster

band is located below the ceiling. A post-period of significance light fixture hangs from the ceiling of each part of the room. The ceramic tile and plain plaster borders postdate the period of significance.

The south wall of Room 1014 consists of the tile wainscot, a recently installed group of stained wood casement windows, and the tile border below the ceiling. Outside of the casement windows is an arcade composed of three arches landing supported by spiral-fluted stone columns with scroll capitals (two full columns, two half columns). The columns have octagonal lower sections with a wood balustrade between them. Photographs of the space indicate that the interior face of the south wall has taken several different forms. Along with the balustrade between the arcade columns, this may suggest that the room was originally open to the outside and functioned as a riyādh Painted, ceramic tile plaques decorate the west and north walls of the room. A niche, crowned with an intricately carved Algerian arch, is located on both the east and west walls north of the archway dividing the room. They were added after the period of significance. The plaster ornament of the scalloped arch is also highly elaborate, consisting of arabesques in the spandrels, geometrical elements in its frame, and foliate forms in the intrados. This decorative treatment is reminiscent of, although not identical to, the arches in the Salon and the Living Rooms. The similarities suggest common dates for the creation of the decoration, likely during the period of French rule.

Character-Defining Features: Riyādh (Room 1014)

- Terrazzo floor

- Wall treatment of east, west, and north walls (ceramic tile wainscot, plaster walls, and ceramic tile plaques) although individual elements may be replacements

- Arcade and balustrade on the exterior of the south wall

- Arch resting on columns dividing the room, including plaster ornamentation

Physical Description: Living Room (Room 1016) (Figures 1.5.62 through 1.5.68)

Room 1016 lies within the Ottoman footprint of the DCMR, but many of the details suggest later alterations, both during and after the period of significance. Room 1017, which Room 1016 opens into on the south, lies outside the Ottoman footprint. The south wall of Room

1.5 Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

1016 was therefore altered to provide access to Room 1017. The similarity of decoration in both rooms suggest that Room 1016 was altered to match it, since the crispness of the ornament makes it unlikely to be in excess of two hundred years old. In general, then, the current decorative treatment in Room 1016 postdates Ottoman rule in Algeria and likely reflects French period ornamentation. The location of Room 1016’s walls and its proportions, however, belong to the Ottoman period.

One steps down into Room 1016 from doors on the east and north onto a floor composed of ceramic tiles. The tiles do not, however, display the colorfully painted, foliate designs of the floor tiles in Rooms 1002, 1005, 1006, 1018, 1019, and 1020. Rather, each tile is composed of five rows of white squares, with black triangles at the corners, giving an effect of small diamonds and larger octagons. Like Rooms 1018, 1019, and 1020, Room 1016 eschews decorative tile wainscot in favor of baseboards and plaster walls. In Room 1016, a plain gray marble baseboard is used instead of the decorative tile in the rooms to the north. The ceiling in Room 1016 resembles that in Room 1002 constructed of wood boards laid in a north-south direction with intersecting applied wood moldings set diagonally in relation to the ceiling boards, creating a diamond pattern. Unlike the rooms on the east side of the building, Room 1016 does not use crown molding at the top of its walls. Rather, a band of plaster ornament like that used as a base for the crown molding in the east rooms runs around the room approximately 380mm below the ceiling, linking the decoration around the arches on the north and south sides of the room. The wall between the ornamental band and the ceiling has been painted white, suggesting a blank frieze.

The east wall of Room 1016 includes a marble step below the door to Room 1018. The step, which likely dates to the period of significance, runs across the entire wall. The doorway consists of a scalloped wood frame against which the door closes. A wood shelf supported by brackets, like that on the south wall of Room 1006 is located above the door. The plaster ornamental band 380mm below the ceiling is the only other ornament. On the south, a rectangular window opening is located near the east end. The opening has an interior frame and holds a recent, wood-frame casement. A small, arched opening above the window is

filled with clear glass and is framed in plaster ornament. The ornamental plaster band crosses the length of the wall and acts as the top of the frame for plaster ornament around the round, horseshoe-arched opening to Room 1017. This ornament is more complex and delicate in the frame, spandrels, and intrados than ornament in the east rooms. The corners of the opening into Room 1017 feature the same detail of a reed topped by carved leaves or petals that characterizes the corners of the niche in the south wall of Room 1002, which postdates the period of significance. West of the archway leading into Room 1017 is a niche-sized, arc algerois opening between Rooms 1016 and 1017. It, too, is framed by delicate plaster decoration.

The west wall consists of a fireplace that covers the width of the wall, plaster above, with two decorative, rectangular plaster covers for ventilation openings just below the ornamental band near the ceiling. The fireplace is composed of a gray marble baseboard, raised marble hearth border, tile hearth floor, brick firebox floor (manufactured by A. Clausonnet?), tile firebox surround, and a stone or plaster fireplace surround much like the one in the Dining Room, with a crescent moon holding a flower in the center and flower ropes extending to each side. The fireplace is set in a decorative tile wall below a marble mantel.

A pointed archway in the north wall opens into the Atrium (Room 1021). The decoration framing the north wall arch is similar in delicacy and complexity to that of the east wall arch, but differs in detail. The decorative frame is narrower because the pointed-arch opening isn’t as wide as its counterpart on the south. The decoration includes Arabic script picked out in gold bordering a set of three squares above the point of the arch. The squares are inset with a variety of geometrical patterns, including Islamic stars, diamonds, lozenges, and triangles. An algerois niche is located on either side of the arch; each has ornamental plaster framing and wood doors decorated with vertical and horizontal rectangles. Above each niche is an arched, decorative, plaster cover for ventilation openings. Both the niches and likely the arched ventilation openings were added after the period of significance.

1.5 Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

Character-Defining Features: Living Room (Room 1016)

- Tile floor?

- Step west of door to Room 1018, although possibly not surface materials

- Wood ceiling

- Plaster ornament, including band around walls below ceiling and in spandrels around arches to Rooms 1017 and 1021

- Fireplace, including stone or plaster and tile surround and marble mantel

- Window opening in south wall

- Arc algerois opening in south wall, including plaster decoration

- Decorative ventilation opening covers on west and north walls

Physical Description: Living Room (Room 1017) (Figures 1.5.69 through 1.5.74)

Room 1017 is located on the south side of Villa Oued El Kilaï and contains windows looking out on the south terrace garden, gravel path, the Lower Court Yard (Room 3001). Much of the surface treatment that is found in Room 1016 also characterizes Room 1017. It has the same black-and-white tile floor, gray marble baseboard, plaster walls, and band of plaster ornament below the ceiling (approximately 305mm below). The room also has a wood ceiling with diamond-pattern molding, like Room 1016, but the cross arches in the room divide the ceiling into three sections. A large diamond motif in the center of the middle section of the ceiling holds a post-period of significance chandelier. The plaster decoration of the arches and frames also emulate the delicacy and complexity of the decoration on the south wall of Room 1016, and the corners of the walls below the arches include the same motif of a reed topped by carved leaves or petals that is found in Room 1016 and the post-period of significance niche in Room 1002.

The east and west walls mirror each other. In the window opening at the center of each wall (outside the window sash), a pair of round horseshoe arches rest on a stone column. The painted columns are octagonal in plan in their lower halves, spiral above and have scroll capitals. The window sash consists of paired, wood casements of recent vintage. The sills are made of marble. Above each window is a small, arched opening filled with a plaster

grille holding colored glass. The decorative frame of the plaster grille also includes color in its geometric decoration. A north-south, round, horseshoe arch set inside the east and west walls frames each of these windows. The north-south arches feature the same geometric, patterned, plaster decoration as the archway opening into Room 1016.

The south elevation of Room 1017 consists of a round, horseshoe arch with the same plaster decoration used elsewhere in Room 1016. On each side of this arch is an arc algerois niche with plaster decoration. These niches were added after the period of significance. The south arch frames a rectangular window with three recent, stained wood casements with a marble sill. Three arches resting on two stone columns stand outside the woodframed windows. Above the arch are three small arched openings with decorative plaster grilles and colored glass, and those arched openings are held in a rectangular frame with geometrical plaster ornament. The triplearched window postdates the period of significance; they arched openings above may also. On the north wall, the decoration matches that of the arch on the south wall of Room 1016. An arc algerois niche is located east of the arch. To the west can be seen the south face of the arched opening between Rooms 1016 and 1017.

Character-Defining Features: Living Room (Room 1017)

- Tile floor?

- Wood ceiling in three sections

- Plaster ornament, including band around walls below ceiling and around arches

- Double-arched form of window openingson east and west walls

- Arc algerois opening in north wall decorative ventilation opening covers above windows on east and west walls

Figure 1.5.59

Room 1014 has a terrazzo floor in addition to more typical elements. Looking northwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.58

The door between Rooms 1013a and 1014 has a metal cover on its west side, perforated with a crescent moon and star pattern. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.60

The windows in the south wall of Room 1014 are recent replacements. Looking southeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.61

The niche in the east wall of Room 1014. Looking east. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.62

Arabesques and geometrical elements decorate the scalloped arch in Room 1014. Looking north. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.63

The tile floor in Room 1016 has a geometrical pattern. Looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.65

The east wall in Room 1016 holds a scalloped framed doorway to Room 1018. Looking east. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.66

A window, a decorated archway, and an arc algerois opening characterize the south wall of Room 1016. Looking southwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.67

The opening into Room 1017 from Room 1016 features a horseshoe arch and plaster decoration. Looking south. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.64

The ceiling of room 1016 resembles that in Room 1002. Looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.68

A fireplace is the central feature of the west wall of Room 1016. Looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.71

Arch ornament on Room 1017’s south wall. Looking south. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.72

Arch, window, and niches on the east wall of Room 1017. Looking east. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.70

The wood ceiling in Room 1017 is divided into three sections by arches. Looking south. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.69

The decorative arch surround on the north wall of Room 1016 includes Arabic script. Looking north. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.73

An opening between Rooms 1016 and 1017 is located near the west end of the wall between the two rooms. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.74

The south wall of Room 1017 contains a tripartite window with three arched grilles above. Looking southeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

1.5 Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

Physical Description: Receiving Hall (Rooms 1019-1020) (Figures 1.5.75 through 1.5.80)

As mentioned above, Room 1019 initially included Rooms 1005 and 1006 as a typical long, narrow Ottoman living space. Today, Rooms 1019 and 1020 are considered part of the DCMR’s Receiving Hall; both are located within the building’s Ottoman footprint. Room 1020 is an ancillary room or alcove. Rooms 1019 and 1020 share the same pattern of floor tiles, although there are many broken and outlier tiles among the overall pattern. The floor tiles do not match those in Rooms 1005 and 1006. Rooms 1019 and 1020 are unusual in that they do not include tile wainscot as the other rooms in Villa Oued El Kilaï, employing instead tile baseboards with plaster walls above. The baseboard tiles appear to be more recent than the floor tiles. The wall treatment in the Receiving Hall likely represents post-period of significance alterations. Crown moldings include a band of plaster ornament with vegetal forms below a more typical Western molding. Unlike Rooms 1005 and 1006, however, the decorative elements are white rather than painted with bright colors. A second band of the same ornament borders the ceilings in both 1019 and 1020. The ceilings themselves are white plaster with a diamond pattern like the wood ceiling in Room 1002.

The north wall is the partition between Room 1019 and Room 1006, with its rectangular door opening and wood door patterned with rectangles and squares, separating the Receiving Hall from the Corridor. The partition in this location was added after the period of significance, although an earlier partition existed slightly to the south. A niche with a scalloped arch, like that in Room 1006, is located on the east wall of Room 1019 near its southern end. Paired wood doors close the niche below the arch. On the east and south walls of Room 1019, a pointed-arch opening with scalloped intrados leads to Room 1020 (east) and Room 1018 (south).

Room 1020 also employs the scalloped intrados for the arches on the north, east, and south, but the profile is more complex than the simple horseshoe shape seen elsewhere, using a smaller lobe atop a larger one to create an additional shadow line. In addition, the arches in Room 1020 are nearly round, rather than pointed. The north wall of Room 1020 holds an algerois niche with a tile floor and

plaster walls; it essentially creates a niche within the niche formed by the scalloped wall arch. The arch on the east wall holds a double-arched window opening with a cylindrical column employing astragals at the top to suggest a capital. The intradoses of the arches employ the repeating horseshoe scallop. The window is composed of two rectangular wood sashes of recent vintage, located outboard of the arched opening. The transoms are horseshoe-shaped with wood frames divided into two lights. The sill and side walls of the window opening are surfaced with tile, and the side walls include a vertical band of geometrical plaster ornament. A rectangular window with wood-frame, casement sashes of recent vintage is located in the south wall of Room 1020, within the scalloped arch. It has a tile sill.

Room 1018 contains many of the same decorative treatments as Rooms 1019 and 1020 and would likely be understood as a continuation of the Receiving Hall, although it is not called out as a representational room in the statement of work for the HSR. The arches on the east, south, and west walls of Room 1018 employ the more complex scallop of Room 1020, and the south wall contains a fireplace with marble surround and mantel below a double-arched window opening resting on a marble column. The ceiling features the familiar diamond pattern rendered in plaster.

Character-Defining Features: Receiving Hall (Rooms 1019-1020)

- Tile floors

- Arches with scalloped intradoses

- Plaster crown molding and ceiling ornament

- Niche in east wall of Room 1019

- Niche in north wall of Room 1020

- Double-arched form of window opening in the east wall of Room 1020

- Rectangular window opening in south wall of Room 1020

1.5 Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

Physical Description: Atrium (Room 1021) (Figures 1.5.81 through 1.5.89)

The Atrium (Room 1021) is the Villa Oued El Kilaï’s wast al-dār the central element, originally open to the sky, around which the residence’s rooms were organized. It also acted as a chimney for the escape of hot air, and its galleries both shaded the walls of the interior rooms and provide access to them. The Atrium was later enclosed with an octagonal dome, probably during the period of significance. As the circulation hub of the villa, several rooms and access to stairs and other parts of the residence open from the Atrium. A doorless, undecorated horseshoe-arched opening at the north end of the east wall links the atrium to the Corridor (Rooms 1005-1006) and Entry Hall (Room 1002). Opposite this opening on the west wall, a doorless, round-arched, carved, tuff stone opening leads to stairs to the second floor, the kitchen wing, and the Salon and Salon Alcove (Rooms 1013a and 1015). Two doors in the north wall access the stair to the basement level (Rooms 1009 and 0017) and to Room 1007 (Powder Room). A pointed-arch doorway on the south, closed by tall, rectangular wood doors, leads to the Living Room (Room 1016). A low, round-arched doorway in the west wall, with a carved tuff surround, leads to a closet (Room 1012), which includes a floor of Ottomanperiod terra cotta tiles. Doors in the atrium are likely post-period of significance replacements or reworkings of earlier doors, but they adhere to the geometrical patterning that would be expected of an Ottoman or Moorish Revival space.

The Atrium is roughly square in plan. Intersecting arcades support the second-floor galleries and create the square space that is set slightly northwest of the room’s center. The floor within this open square is composed of gray, hexagonal, marble tiles that date to the Ottoman period. A border of black stone surrounds this square, into which the structural columns are set. Beyond the columns, the floor is composed of square marble tiles of various hues of gray. These are likely post-Ottoman period tiles but may date to the period of significance.

Decorative treatment of each wall in the Atrium differs in detail from the others, but each wall employs the decorative details found elsewhere in the villa. Tile wainscot with plaster walls above account for the overall wall surface. The wainscot appears to be of recent date

but is appropriate to the space in both the Ottoman and Moorish Revival periods. Large tile plaques also ornament the walls, as do a variety of small plaster grilles that were part of the villa’s passive ventilation system. A single arch algerois niche is located near the center of the east wall. It postdates the period of significance. Its walls and sill have decorative tile surfaces, and it is closed with a pair of wood doors with geometrical ornament. The carved, tuff stone door surrounds use typical North African elements, such as flowers, crescent moons, rope motifs, and chevrons. As mentioned, geometrical raised elements characterize the doors. Two of the doors, accessing Rooms 1009 and 1016, make use of the secondary, wood door frame with scalloped crown found elsewhere in the building.

The pointed horseshoe arches supporting the gallery rest on painted stone columns that feature octagonal plan lower halves, with the remainder of the shaft above spiraling up to the capital. The capitals employ the simple scrolled elements at the corners often found in Algerian columns. The octagonal portions of the columns indicate that they are replacements for the original columns, since such columns were typically used on second floors, with the flat faces of the octagonal sections used as places to anchor turned wood balustrades. The arches themselves are recessed slightly from the walls above, creating a rectangular framing element of horizontal and vertical bands, known as hzâm and swâlaf, respectively. Frequently, in Ottoman and Moorish Revival design, these bands are ornamented with ceramic tiles. In the DCMR Atrium, only a horizontal band of decorative tile is employed.

The ceiling of the central square consists of the underside of the domed roof above the second floor. The octagonal plaster surface, painted white, rests on four pendentives and four arches. The four arches hold fixed semicircular glass panes of unknown date. The dome is also pierced by four arched openings filled with plaster grillework holding colored glass. The ceiling of the Atrium area outside the central square is composed of the round logs that support the gallery floors. Below these log joists on the west side of the atrium is a round log anchored into the wall and arcade on the west.

1.5 Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

Character-Defining Features: Atrium (Room 1021)

- Gray marble, hexagonal tile floor with black stone border within arcade

- Gray marble, square tile floor outside of arcade?

- Decorative scheme using tile wainscot with plaster walls above (although not the tiles themselves)

- Tile wall plaques

- Plaster ventilation grilles

- Carved, tuff stone door and doorway surrounds

- Type of wood doors with geometrical patterning and scalloped secondary frames (although not the doors themselves)

- Arcades featuring carved stone columns, horseshoe arches, plaster walls with rectangular framing elements

- Log joists supporting gallery floor above

- Log beam between arcade and wall on south

- Domed ceiling

Physical Description: Atrium Gallery (Room 2010) (Figures 1.5.90 through 1.5.97)

The Atrium Gallery (Room 2010), which is located within the Ottoman footprint of Villa Oued El Kilaï at the second floor level of the Atrium, provides access to the rooms arranged around it. Before the domed roof was added to the villa, when the Atrium was open to the sky, the gallery helped to shade its vertical walls, a typical Algerian passive cooling technique. A stair from the first floor (Room 1022-2016) opens into the gallery on the south end of its west side. The stair features recent tile risers and marble treads, decorative tile wainscot and plaster walls, and a series of groin vaults in the ceiling.

The floor of the gallery is composed of larger, octagonal gray marble tiles with smaller, diamond-shaped, red marble tiles at the corners. While a small number of tiles appear to have been replaced, the majority appear to be older. An arcade with a stained, turned-wood balustrade functions as the inner “wall” of the gallery. The arcade consists of pointed, horseshoe arches resting on carved and painted, tuff stone columns with scroll capitals. As is traditional in Algerian architecture of the Ottoman period, the columns feature octagonal lower halves, with spiral fluting above. The flat sides of the octagonal portion of the columns allow for firm joining of the balustrade to the column. At Oued El Kilaï, the balustrade extends above the octagonal segment into the spiral fluting. This

condition was not seen in other examples or paintings of Ottoman architecture reviewed for the HSR.

The plaster outer walls of the gallery are decorated with a painted, ceramic tile wainscot. Two rectangular niches, closed with stained wood doors, are located on the east wall. The interior of each niche is surfaced with painted tiles. An arc algerois niche with a marble basin is located on the west wall near its north end. All three niches were added after the period of significance. Including the opening from the stair, six doorways in the outer walls of the Gallery provide access to the other rooms on the second floor. All the doorways have marble thresholds, and two of them (to Rooms 1022-2016 and 2014) have round-arched openings framed with carved and painted, tuff stone or stucco surrounds ornamented with flowers, chevrons, and other Islamic motifs. The three doorways opening into the primary rooms of the Ottoman second floor (on the north, east, and south sides) are each raised above the gallery floor and have a pointed, horseshoe arch set in undecorated spandrels. Above each of the doorways to the main rooms are sets of three small, round-arched ventilation openings with varying grille designs. Single ventilation openings are located in other places on the walls. The doors to the gallery rooms themselves are stained wood with vertically oriented rectangular panels, rather than the smaller square, rectangular, and diamond-shaped panels seen on most of the doors on the first floor within the Ottoman footprint of the DCMR. They likely postdate the period of significance. The sixth opening off the Gallery is located on the north wall near its east end. It is crowned with an Algerian arch, contains no door, and leads to rooms added to the villa during the French period. It may therefore have been cut during the period of significance to access those rooms.

The ceiling above the gallery rests on the interior arcade, as well as pointed horseshoe arches that continue the arcade to the outer walls. These arches are undecorated and vary in size according to the width of the gallery where the arches are located. Crown molding transitions from the inner arcade and the outer walls to the ceiling itself, which is composed of round logs below painted wood planks. The domed ceiling of the atrium and its round-arched windows are also visible from the Gallery.

Figure 1.5.76

Tile floor and pointed-arch opening from Room 1019 to Room 1018. Looking southwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.75

The arch of the north wall of Room 1017 matches that of the south wall of Room 1016. Looking NW. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.77

The niche in Room 1019 resembles the one in Room 1006. Looking southeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.78

Crown and ceiling moldings in Room 1020 are the same as those in Room 1019. Looking north. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.79

In Room 1020, the scalloped arch holds an arc algerois niche. Looking northeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.80

A double-arched window opening with scalloped intradoses is located on the east wall of Room 1020. Looking northeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.82

The east wall of Room 1021, with pointed arch opening to Room 1006. Looking southeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.83

Carved tuff door surround in the west wall leading to the stair (Room 1022), Grand Salon (Room 1013a), and kitchen area (Room 1011a). Looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.81

A rectangular window in the south wall of Room 1020. Looking southeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.84

Geometrically patterned doors between the Atrium and the Living Room (Room 1016). Looking south. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.85

Carved tuff door surround in north wall leading to the stair to the basement (Rooms 1009, 0017). Looking north. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.88

Underside of the octagonal dome above the Atrium and second-floor gallery. Looking south. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.87

Niche in east wall of the Atrium. Looking east. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.86

Hexagonal and square gray marble tiles cover the floor beneath the Atrium’s arcade. Looking southwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.92

Gray and red marble tiles cover the gallery floor. Looking north. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.93

A marble basin is located in a niche on the west wall. Looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.94

Two doorways in the Gallery have carved tuff stone or stucco surrounds, including this one opening onto the stairs. Looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.89

Ceiling above the west arcade in the Atrium, showing log joists supporting second-floor gallery and log wall beam. Looking south. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.90

Room 2010 provides access to all the rooms on the second floor. Looking southeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.91

A groin-vaulted stair climbs the west wall to the Gallery. Looking south. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.95

Doors into the second floor’s main rooms have pointed, horseshoe-arched openings. Looking northeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.96

The arches supporting the wood ceiling of the Gallery vary in size. Looking north. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.97

A domed ceiling covers the space above the Atrium. Looking east. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Character-Defining Features:

Atrium Gallery (Room 2010)

- Floor composed of octagonal, gray marble and diamond-shaped red marble tiles?

- Decorative scheme using tile wainscot with plaster walls above (although perhaps not the tiles themselves)

- Type of wood balustrade along the inner edge of the gallery (although perhaps not the balustrade itself)

- Plaster ventilation grilles

- Carved, tuff stone door and doorway surrounds

- Pointed, horseshoe arch and Algerian arch openings to surrounding rooms

- Arcades featuring carved stone columns, horseshoe arches, plaster walls with rectangular framing elements

- Log joists supporting ceiling above

- Domed ceiling

General Description: Second Floor (Figures 1.5.98 through 1.5.108)

As on the first floor, second-floor rooms within the Ottoman footprint of the building were likely long and narrow in their original configuration. Domed spaces were located over Atrium and on three corners (all except the southwest), as well as above the k’bou (Room 2018). Openings in the domes assisted in passive cooling by drawing hot air out of the house and provided natural light. Floors were likely covered with painted ceramic tiles. Much worn floor tile remains in some of these spaces, including Rooms 2012-2018 (Bedroom 4 and its k’bou, also known as the Evelyn Waugh Room) and Room 2013 (Bedroom 5, also known as the Randolph Churchill Room). The finishes of the walls in these spaces during the Ottoman period are not known. Currently, they are composed of recent ceramic tile baseboards with painted plaster above. Both the Waugh and Churchill rooms (and Room 2008) have fireplaces similar to those on the first floor, with marble hearth borders and mantels and marble-and-tile surrounds. Both rooms also feature wall niches with Algerian-arched tops, as well as round-arched ventilation openings with plaster grilles. All the niches were added after the period of significance. Both of the windows in Room 2012 consist of a pair of round arches supported by a cylindrical column. This type of window can also be found in several locations on the first floor. The south wall of the Churchill Room includes an arched opening that leads to a shallow projection providing access to a roof terrace (Room 3005).

The ceilings of most of the rooms on the second floor within the Ottoman footprint are flat, painted plaster with plaster crown molding. The ceiling in the Churchill Room, however, is composed of wood beams with wood planks above. This type of ceiling is associated with postOttoman period construction, such as Room 2000. The domed spaces on the second floor utilize additional detailing. The pointed, horseshoe arches have a shadow line and undecorated spandrels. In the domed part of the Waugh Room a stylized floral motif has been carved above the point of the south arch, and each of the eight panels of the dome is ornamented with a single-stemmed plaster flower.

During the period of French rule, additions were made to the Villa Oued El Kilaï on the south, west, and north. On the second floor, this includes spaces that are currently used as bedrooms, bathrooms, and closets (Rooms 20002006). These spaces share some similarities. The walls are generally composed of wood or ceramic tile baseboards with plaster above. Room 2000 is the only room with a fireplace, and it resembles those in first-floor rooms constructed or altered during the French period. The windows are usually squarish, with recent, stained wood casements. (The west window in Room 2002 is a larger rectangle with a three-part casement, added after the period of significance.) Openings between the rooms can have pointed, horseshoe arches or arcs algerois with wood doors. The primary rooms have wood floors. (Worn ceramic tiles floor Room 2005.) The floors in Rooms 2000, 2001, and 2003b consist of wood boards, while Room 2002 employs a herringbone pattern like Room 1013a, which lies directly below it. Other similarities between Room 2002 and the Salon are the diamond-patterned, wood ceiling with a large diamond-shaped centerpiece from which a light fixture hangs (here with fan), and the plaster crown molding below. Wood joists supporting plank ceilings are found in Rooms 2000, 2004, and 2005. The ceiling of Room 2000 also features cross beams with angled knee braces.

1.5 Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

1.5 Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

Rooms 2003a and 2003b constitute the bathroom serving Room 2002, and their features follow the heightened decoration of Room 2002. Room 2003a includes a floor depicting what would appear to be Neptune in small square marble tiles. The date of the floor is unknown. Walls in Room 2003a include recent, painted ceramic tiles to the top of the window with plaster walls above. A round-arched opening with colored glass in a plaster grille is located above the window. A significant decorative feature of Room 2003b is the carved, tuff stone or stucco door surround employing traditional Islamic ornamental motifs. The space also includes an elaborate octagonal dome that displays delicate plaster ornamentation at its base, on the face of its eight arches, and in the ribs of its vault.

Figure 1.5.101

The south window in Room 2012, with its double-arches landing on a cylindrical column. Looking southeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.99

The Evelyn Waugh Room includes arc algerois niches as well as pointed horseshoe arches. Looking SE. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.98

Floors in several rooms on the second floor have worn older tiles in addition to more recent replacements. Looking north. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.100

The Randolph Churchill Room possesses a fireplace like those elsewhere in the house, and its ceiling is supported by wood beams. Looking east. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.104

A pointed, horseshoe arch opens from Room 2002 into Room 2001. Looking east. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.105

The wood ceiling in Room 2002 resembles the one in Room 1013a. Looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.102

The domed ceiling in the Waugh room includes carved stucco decoration. Looking south. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.103

Room 2000 possesses features common to rooms added to the Villa Oued El Kilaï during the period of French Rule in Algeria. Looking northeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.106

A figure of Neptune composed of marble tiles decorates the floor of Room 2003a. Looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.107

In Room 2003b, a carved, round-arched opening leads to Room 2003a. Looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.108

An octagonal dome with carved stucco ornament covers Room 2003b. Looking south. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CHARACTERDEFINING FEATURES: LANDSCAPE

The DCMR is located in the northwest portion of the United States Embassy property at 5, Chemin Cheikh El Bachir El Ibrahimi. The property encompasses the remains of the eighteenth-century Villa Oued El Kilaî djnân and stands across the road from the Villa Montfeld, the US Chief of Mission Residence (CMR). The diplomatic missions of other countries are also located in this area. The compound of which the DCMR is a part includes the chancery, two compound access control (CAC) buildings, a community center, a warehouse, and other buildings, as well as athletic facilities, walks, drives, and landscaping. The embassy compound reached its current form in 2007 with the completion of the new chancery and its associated facilities. Most remnants of the villa’s preembassy landscape outside the immediate grounds of the DCMR, including the entrance drive and some buildings, were removed as a result of the 2007 construction. Remaining elements include its geographic location in the Sahel approximately 210 meters above sea level, its sloping topography, and the qubba, or domed tomb, located near the athletic court southwest of the DCMR. The extent of the entire embassy compound has declined from 9.9 hectares when the United States began renting it in 1962 to 3.0 hectares today. The decrease resulted from land appropriated by the Algerian government. The DCMR grounds described in this section of the HSR amount to approximately 0.5 hectares of that total. The landscape is defined by embassy compound walls on the north and northwest, stuccoed masonry walls dating to the period of significance on the east, south, and west, and the west façade of the Fountain Court Apartments.

The DCMR is built near the crest of a hill that declines to the southeast, east, and southwest. A drive approaches the DCMR from Chemin Cheikh El Bachir El Ibrahimi on the east, climbing to the rise on which the residence stands before splitting into two branches. One branch leads to a paved apron at the DCMR’s Compound Sqîfa on the southeast corner; the other curves around the residence on the north to reach parking and the Fountain Court Apartments. The buildings, landscape structures, and villa walls create a courtyard immediately adjacent to the residence (Rooms 3001-3003), while the walls on the south enclose garden terraces (Rosemary and West

terraces). West of the villa, the landscape gives way to an athletic court and the compound wall. The compound wall also acts as the north boundary, bordering the parking and apartments. The following text provides more detail on the current features of the landscape, beginning with the approach and courtyards on the east and moving clockwise around the site. Character-defining features of the landscape are also identified. The character areas as discussed in Volume 2, Chapter 3 of the HSR, Landscape Existing Conditions are given in parentheses at the beginning of each section of the description.

Physical Description: Entry Sequence: Approach, Compound Sqîfa, and Covered Entrance Hall (Character Areas 1-3) (Figures 1.5.109 through 1.5.119)

The DCMR is reached by both pedestrian and vehicular routes from the Compound Access Control building at the northeast corner of the site. The vehicular route is an asphalt-paved drive near the north boundary of the compound. As previously mentioned, it splits into south and north branches at the top of the slope. The pedestrian path consists of a straight concrete walk with steps running from the east to the apron in front of the DCMR entrance. Lawn, flowerbeds, trees, and lampposts occupy the unpaved spaces on both sides of the drive and walk. With the potential exception of some parts of the retaining walls, all the construction in this area postdates the period of significance.

Concrete curbs border the approach drive on the south; retaining walls constructed of various materials are located on the north. The walls of the segment of the drive from the CAC to its fork at the top of the rise were built during the Chancery construction. They are constructed of painted concrete in the straight sections and round-faced concrete blocks where the drive curves to the north. Beyond this point, walls constructed of stacked stones are located on both sides of the drive’s north branch and along the north side of the apron. The stone walls appear to contain both older and more recent construction. Since a drive in this area existed during the period of significance, it is possible that portions of the stone walls date to the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries.

1.5 Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR

Traditionally, residential construction in Algiers during the Ottoman period both in the city itself and in the Sahel countryside possessed an inward focus. Masonry walls, the residence itself, and garden structures were arranged to enclose private outdoor spaces, such as courtyards and gardens. Entrances to residences were often located below the living area and offset from the house itself, creating indirect approaches. As part of the entry sequence, a Sqîfa (a vestibule used as a waiting area) was employed to prevent direct access to the house. In a djnân in the Algiers countryside, a vestibule might be located in the wall enclosing the residence and/ or in the house itself. The Villa Oued El Kilaï had such vestibules in both these locations, designated in the HSR as the Compound Sqîfa and the Sqîfa (Room 0001).

The Compound Sqîfa, covered entrance hall, and an apartment are located southeast of the DCMR and its courtyards. These connected structures stand one-story tall and are built of stuccoed masonry. The east wall of the structures constituting the east façade of the Compound Sqîfa is part of the masonry wall that encloses the DCMR courtyards. The north façade also forms a boundary wall for the courtyards. The south façade acts as the north boundary (and retaining wall) for the Rosemary Terrace. The west wall of the apartment completes the group of structures and abuts the French period k’bou of the DCMR’s south façade.

The Compound Sqîfa is entered through a pointed, horseshoe-arched opening on the east. Two spiralfluted, tuff stone columns support the arch, which is framed in hzām and swālof faced with ornamental ceramic tile. The columns stand on a modern marble threshold, and a concave-convex tile drip ledge is located above the arch. Like the Sqîfa in the DCMR itself, the Compound Sqîfa has a square plan, tile-surfaced seating niches (duqqâna) on the north and south (with arches resting on columns on each side), and a heavy door in a round-arched, carved, tuff stone surround on the west. The floor of the vestibule features a reddish mosaic crescent moon set in a gray terrazzo field. The threshold of the round-arched doorway on the west is composed of square gray marble chips with a row of decorative elements suggesting stylized fleurs-de-lis The ceiling is a pointed, horseshoe, barrel vault. A ceramic tile with Arabic script is located over the heavy wood door, which is composed of vertical boards and is

decorated with metal bosses like the current front door to the DCMR. A gridded rectangular window is located in the wood transom in the doorway arch. As with other aspects of the DCMR, the Compound Sqîfa has been recently restored. The terrazzo floor, for instance, has been repaired, and cream-colored chips have replaced some of the reddish squares in the crescent moon.

Immediately west of the Compound Sqîfa lies the covered entrance hall. It consists of two spaces — a rectangular room immediately west of the Compound Sqîfa with two windows looking south over the terraced gardens and a larger adjacent space that opens onto the courtyards to the north (Rooms 3001-3003). Both hall spaces have modern terrazzo tile floors and decorative ceramic tile baseboards. The painted stucco walls date to the period of significance. The east part of the hall is barrel vaulted, with a horseshoe-arched opening on the west. The recent, wood-framed, rectangular windows are set in Algerian-arched openings with recent green and white tile sills. The windows flank an undated, round-topped marble plaque dedicated to the memory of Cecilia Jourdan, who was the first woman to serve as a clerk in the US Foreign Service. She was hired by her husband, the American consul in Algiers, and served from 1882 until 1884. The plaque was sponsored by the American Foreign Service Women. A small, post-period of significance niche, similar in detail to the windows, is located in the north wall.

The west part of the hall continues the floor, baseboards, and stucco walls of the eastern room, but is more highly ornamented. The south wall consists of large, decorative tile plaques flanking a double-arched window. The section of wall in which the window is located is set back from the plane of the flanking walls. A small, rectangular niche postdating the period of significance is located in both the east and west walls of setback. The recent, rectangular, wood-frame window stands inboard of the double-arched opening, which employs pointed arches resting on a single, cylindrical, tuff stone column with astragals at the top suggesting a capital. The west wall separates the entrance hall from an apartment. A glass-block window postdating the period of significance is located in this wall. The north wall opens onto the DCMR courtyards through an arcade of three undecorated, pointed, horseshoe arches resting on two carved, tuff stone columns. The ceiling above this section of the entrance hall is constructed of painted

wood planks resting on round wood logs. A Europeanstyle crown molding transitions from the wall to the ceiling, and a post-period of significance light fixture hangs from its center.

Character-Defining Features: Entry Sequence Drive, Compound Sqîfa, and Covered Entrance Hall

Entrance Drive

- North and south branches of entrance drive, including the apron (although not paving)

- Stacked stone retaining walls dating to the period of significance?

Compound Sqîfa

- Stuccoed masonry construction, including east courtyard wall and Sqîfa

- Pointed, horseshoe-arched opening in east wall

- Terrazzo floor with crescent moon (restored)

- Stucco walls

- Duqqâna in side walls, including decorative ceramic tiles

- Barrel-vaulted masonry ceiling

- Carved tuff stone door surround

- Stained wood door with transom

Covered Entrance Hall

- Stuccoed masonry construction

- Window openings in the south wall of the east room

- Tile plaques on south wall of west room

- Double-arched window opening form in south wall of west roomtriple-arched opening in north wall leading to courtyards, including carved stone columns with scroll capitals

- Wood plank ceiling with round wood beams and crown molding

Physical Description: Courtyards (Rooms 3001, 3002, and 3003) and Riyādh (Character Area 7) (Figures 1.5.120 through 1.5.128)

The Courtyards (Rooms 3001-3003) were created by the buildings and structures around it — the Compound Sqîfa, covered entrance hall, and apartment on the south; the L-shaped DCMR on the west and north; the L-shaped Riyādh at the northeast corner; and the courtyard wall on the east. The space has three distinct terraces, labeled in the HSR as the Lower Courtyard (Room 3001) on the south, Upper Courtyard (Room 3002) in the center, and

Riyādh Terrace on the north. Steps accommodate the rise from the lower to the upper courtyard and from the upper courtyard to the Riyādh Terrace. Steps are also located at the west end of the Riyādh Terrace to reach the current front door to the DCMR. This spatial organization remains generally the same as it was at the end of the period of significance. Some details and most of the surface materials, however, have changed.

The visitor enters the Lower Courtyard from the covered entrance hall, stepping down onto a stretch of tomette paving (reddish hexagonal tiles with black triangular tiles fillings the gaps between the hexagons). These tiles likely date to the period of significance; the remainder of the paving of the Lower Courtyard (as well as the Upper Courtyard and the Riyādh Terrace) consists primarily of square red tiles installed in the 1980s. A drainage channel postdating the period of significance is located between the covered entrance hall’s north façade and the Lower Courtyard. A palm tree grows from an opening in tile paving near the Lower Courtyard’s southeast corner, and a round-arched niche is located in the east wall. The floor of the niche features black and white tiles in a checkerboard pattern. Trees grew in the courtyard during the period of significance, although it is not known whether one grew in this location. A decorative tile plaque is located in a recess in the wall of the covered entrance hall on the south. On the west is the DCMR itself; the opening in the French period k’bou on the south side of the DCMR provides access to the Sqîfa (Room 0001) from the courtyards.

On the north side of the Lower Courtyard, a stuccoed masonry retaining wall creates the Upper Courtyard’s terrace, and steps to accommodate the change in grade are located on the east, west, and in the center of the retaining wall. The center steps postdate the period of significance. The retaining wall, along with the cheek walls of the steps, are constructed of stuccoed masonry with decorative ceramic tiles covering the top surface. Similar retaining walls were used during the period of significance, although this wall was rebuilt in the 1980s. Decorative ceramic tile surfaces the risers on all three sets of steps, and they have marble treads. On the east and west steps these features may emulate original materials but they postdate the period of significance. The center steps have metal handrails. The Upper Courtyard includes two palm trees east and west of an

Figure 1.5.109

The entrance drive branches to the north and south as it approaches the DCMR. Looking southeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.110

Retaining walls along the drive as it turns toward the parking area on the north includes recent as well as older stone work. Looking northeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure1.5.111

The Compound Sqîfa southeast of the DCMR, looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.113

The duqqâna on the south side of the Compound Sqîfa, looking southeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.112

The Compound Sqîfa possesses many traditional details of these spaces. Looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

(Robinson & Associates, 2022

Figure 1.5.114

The Compound Sqîfa opens into a covered entrance hall leading to the courtyards. Looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.115

Windows with Algerian arches in the covered entrance hall, looking southeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.117

The arches rest on a cylindrical stone column. Looking southwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.118

An arcade on the north wall opens onto the courtyards. Looking northwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.116

Tile plaques and a double-arched window in the south wall of the covered entrance hall, looking southwest.

Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

Figure 1.5.119

The wood plank and thuja beam ceiling in the covered entrance hall. Looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.120

The arcade in the covered entrance hall, looking south. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure1.5.121

A section of tomette paving lies between the arcade and the Lower Courtyard. Looking east. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.122

A decorative tile plaque, attached to the north wall of the covered entrance hall, faces the courtyard. Looking east. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.123

A retaining wall on the north side of the Lower Courtyard, looking northeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.125

A marble fountain is located between two palm trees in the Upper Courtyard. Looking southeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.126

The Riyādh and its terrace, looking northeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.124

Steps on the west access both the Upper Courtyard and the Riyādh. Looking north. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.127

Tomettes surface the Riyādh floor, and the ceiling is constructed of wood planks and beams. Looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure1.5.128

Tile plaques decorate the east wall of the Riyādh. Looking east. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

1.5 Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

octagonal fountain with marble exterior sides and top. The floor and interior face of the fountain are surfaced with ceramic tiles. A marble, octagonal fountain stood in this location since at least the early twentieth century. Current surfaces may be later replacements in kind. Plants in pots are set in various locations around both courtyards, and there are narrow planting beds located immediately adjacent to the buildings, enclosing wall, and retaining walls. Flowers, ground covers, and shrubs fill these beds.

North of the Upper Courtyard is the Riyādh Terrace, reached by a set of steps on the west. A masonry retaining wall creates its level surface, and the retaining and cheek walls are constructed of stuccoed masonry; the cheek walls are topped with decorative ceramic tiles. The steps also have recent vintage, tile-surfaced risers and marble treads. The terrace is surfaced with postperiod of significance square red tiles, and a narrow planting bed borders each side. Steps to the front door of the DCMR are located at the west end of the terrace. The top surface of the cheek walls consists of black and white tiles in a checkerboard pattern; recent marble slabs cover the treads and risers. On the south side of the terrace, masonry posts with domed caps hold a wood rail on which to train plants. The Riyādh itself is a one-story, L-shaped, stuccoed masonry structure on the north and east sides of the terrace, open toward the courtyards; it forms a part of the courtyard wall. Originally separate from the villa itself, it now abuts the east wall of the French period addition holding the Dining Room (Room 1001). The longer north side of the Riyādh includes a blank section of wall on the west, except for a single window opening, and a three-arched arcade on the east. The round horseshoe arches fall on carved, tuff stone columns with hexagonal plan lower sections, fluted spiral upper sections, and scroll capitals. The hzām and swālof framing the arches are undecorated. A concave-convex drip ledge is located at the top of the wall. The shorter east leg of the Riyādh repeats this composition with two arches. The Riyādh both the enclosed and arcaded sections is floored with tomettes. The interior walls have recent gray tile baseboards. Three decorative tile plaques ornament the east wall within the arcade. The north wall within the arcaded section is blank. On the west, a round-arched doorway with a bossed wood frame holds a heavy wood door. The ceiling consists of a stucco crown molding below round, wood beams and wood planks.

Character-Defining Features: Courtyards (Rooms 3001, 3002, and 3003) and Riyādh

- Spatial organization, consisting of terraces enclosed by buildings and walls

- Circulation function, providing access to doors in east and south facades of villa

- Masonry retaining walls with decorative tiles on top surface (although not current materials)

- Steps and cheek walls between terraces (except for the center steps to Upper Courtyard), including use of decorative tile risers and marble treads (although not current materials)

- Steps and cheek walls to front door, including black and white tile surfaces

- Niche in east wall

- Tomette paving on south side adjacent to covered entrance hall

- Arrangement of features in Upper Terrace, consisting of trees on either side of octagonal fountain faced with marble (exterior) and decorative tiles (interior)

- Arrangement of features of Riyādh Terrace, consisting of paved walk flanked by planting beds, with domed masonry posts and wood rail

- Riyādh, including stuccoed masonry walls (interior and exterior), tomette paving, horseshoe arches falling on tuff stone columns, decorative tiles plaques, and round-arched opening in west wall holding wood door

Physical Description: Rosemary Terrace, West Terrace, and Gravel Walk (Character Areas 4-6) (Figures 1.5.129 through 1.5.138)

Terraced gardens, designated in the HSR as the West Terrace and the Rosemary Terrace (east), are located on the south side of the DCMR, stepping down from the basement level of the DCMR and the gravel walk to the west. Access to these gardens can be gained from the courtyards or from gates in the west wall. The access from the courtyards is controlled through the use of a door on the west side of the French period k’bou’s basement. It is possible to enter the residence through the Sqîfa from the courtyards without having access to the terraces. It is not known for certain whether such a door stood in this location during the period of significance, but its presence would be consistent with emphasis on family privacy in Ottoman period residences in Algiers. It is also not known whether the west gates

Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR

existed, or what form they took if they did exist, during the period of significance.

The terraced gardens are enclosed by stuccoed masonry walls. The north and south walls also act as retaining walls. An additional, stacked stone retaining wall runs east-west through the center of the gardens, separating the upper from the lower terraces. The West and Rosemary gardens occupy both levels of the terracing. They are separated by a gravel path that descends the hill from north to south. Modern, cast concrete paving stones, turned on their edges, act as borders for the walks. Steps transition from the basement-level path adjacent to the residence to the upper level of the gardens, and another set of steps descends from the upper level to the lower. The steps are surfaced in the same modern red tile as the courtyards. The Rosemary Terrace extends farther south than the West Terrace; a set of steps in the west wall of this extension leads to a door giving onto the rest of the Chancery landscape. The configuration of the walls in this area has created an overlook in the southwest corner of the Rosemary Terrace.

The upper level of the Rosemary Terrace stands adjacent to the south facades (from east to west) of the Compound Sqîfa, the covered entrance hall, the staff apartment, and the French period k’bou. A narrow, gravel walk provides access to this area from the central north-south path. Next to the stuccoed masonry façade of the Compound Sqîfa and the covered entrance hall, the walk is lined on the north by a series of three square-plan masonry posts linked by wood rails and on the south by a wood trellis. These features are consistent with similar elements elsewhere in the terraced gardens during the period of significance, but it is not known if the current features date from that time. The west post merges with a masonry addition to the covered hall, used for storage. The westernmost pair of posts frames the south façade of the west section of covered entrance hall, which includes a double-arched window that stands opposite the arcade leading to the courtyards. Beneath this window, below the level of the covered entrance hall, is an arched recess in the masonry that is blank below the arch with a transom above. Through the transom it is possible to see masonry groin vaults of the kind located in the basement level of the DCMR. The vaults provide structural support for the covered entrance hall; the opening in this location suggest a possible relationship of the vaulted area to the

terraced gardens during the Ottoman period. The nature of the relationship remains unknown. A rosemary hedge runs next to the gravel walk along the south façade of the apartment west of the covered entrance hall. The stone retaining wall borders the walk on the south. At the west end of the walk, immediately south of the blank arch in the basement level of the French period k’bou, is a trellis composed of square-plan masonry posts with octagonally domed caps and wood rails. Low walls between the posts are topped with black-and-white checkerboard tiles, as is in the Lower Courtyard niche and the cheek walls of the front entrance steps. Modern, red tiles surface the floor beneath the trellis. Elements of the trellis area, including the square posts, likely date from the period of significance.

Immediately south of the gravel walk in the Rosemary Terrace is a parterre using rosemary hedges to divide the space into six sections. A fountain is located at the center of the four western sections. The fountain basin is faced with ceramic tiles patterned on the exterior, turquoise colored on the interior. The fountain at the center is made of marble. Palm trees and bird of paradise plants grow within the beds marked out by the rosemary, and gravel walks run between them. Shrubs grow against the east wall, the top of which slopes down from the upper to the lower terrace levels.

A broad gravel walk runs along the south façades of the DCMR and Fountain Court Apartments from the French period k’bou to the round-arched opening in the west boundary wall. Small trees in pots are located along the north edge of the walk, next to the building facades. A low masonry wall borders the south side of the walk, marked at intervals by circular posts with flat square caps. Between the posts are metal barriers. While a gravel walk likely existed in this location during the period of significance, the south wall elements and the current gravel surface are modern substitutes for earlier features.

Modern, red-tile steps transition from the broad gravel walk to the upper level of the West Terrace. This level contains a rectangular lawn with a row of mature palm and other trees on the north, near the masonry retaining wall, and a group of both younger and mature trees in an east-west row across the grass. A gravel walk with upturned cast concrete pavers runs alongside the panel of grass and trees on the north, with a rosemary hedge

1.5 Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

marking the south border of the upper level. A roundarched opening with a gate opens onto the gravel walk from the west boundary wall. The wall is of stuccoed masonry with a green tile cap. Neither the vegetation of the upper level of the West Terrace nor the arrangement of the plants date to the period of significance, although the general arrangement of its boundaries does. The details the west wall during the period of significance are not known. The lower level of the West Terrace consists of a turf panel with small trees and shrubs against the north and south walls and a mature tree against the sloping west wall.

Character-Defining Features: East Terraces

- Terraced garden form

- Boundary and retaining walls, including overlook - South façade of Compound Sqîfa-covered entrance hall as boundary wall of Rosemary Terrace, including groinvaulted space

- Upper gravel walk and gravel walks and steps between terraces

- Octagonal fountain basin and marble fountain in Rosemary Terrace?

- Trellis features (masonry posts, low walls, and wood rails) on east and west

Physical Description: West Landscape

(Character Areas 4 and 8)

(Figures 1.5.139 through 1.5.141)

The grounds west of the DCMR are bordered on the east by the west boundary wall, which climbs the hill from the south corner, and the Fountain Court Apartments. The boundary wall is constructed of stuccoed masonry, protected by a concave-convex, green tile cap. The wall is peaked above the two round-arched openings that provide access to the gravel walk along the south facades of the DCMR and Fountain Court Apartments and to the upper level of the West Terrace. Smaller round-arched openings are located above and south of the gravel walk opening and centered above the upper level opening. On the wall between the two openings is a post-period of significance niche composed of a stone seat flanked by two free-standing spiral-fluted columns. Above the columns (and not supported by them) is a peaked roof covered with green convex-concave tiles. A ceramic tile plaque depicting a harbor scene is located between the

columns. A modern red tile apron is located in front of this area. The one-story, stuccoed masonry, west façade of the Fountain Court Apartments north of the wall is set back from a low masonry wall. To the west of the boundary wall is the post-period of significance athletic court and the domed, masonry, Ottoman period qubba nearly buried in the hillside. West of the Fountain Court Apartments is the modern Chancery compound wall.

Character-Defining Features: West Landscape

- West boundary wall

- West façade of Fountain Court Apartments

Physical Description: North Parking & Fountain Court (Character Areas 8 and 9) (Figure 1.5.142)

North of the DCMR, between the west façade of the Fountain Court Apartments and the approach drive from the east, the landscape can be broken into three parts: the Fountain Court itself, the narrow space between the apartments and the compound wall, and a parking area. The spatial organization of the Fountain Court Apartments a U-shaped space with an octagonal fountain as the focal point remains from the end of the period of significance. Its bounding walls are the legs of the apartments. The south and west legs stand one story tall, while the north leg is two stories high. The appearance of these buildings during the period of significance is not known, but since they are thought to have functioned as stables, it seems unlikely that they maintain integrity. The surface of the court is cast concrete paving. The date of the fountain is not known. To the north, on the other side of the two-story north leg of the apartments, the stuccoed masonry of the building functions as the south wall of the space, the compound wall and fence the north wall. In between is gravel and concrete. The parking area is surfaced with asphalt, with grass between the parking and the compound wall and fence.

Character-Defining Features: North Parking and Fountain Court

- Spatial organization of the U-shaped court formed by the Fountain Court Apartments (although not the materials or individual features)

Figure 1.5.129

The north wall of the terraced gardens, looking northeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.130

The south wall of the terraced gardens with overlook, looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.131

Tile-surfaced steps like these between the upper and lower terraces run north to south in the gardens. Looking north. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.133

Recess below double-arched window in the south façade of the covered entrance hall, looking north from the Rosemary Terrace. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.132

Gravel path along the upper level of the Rosemary Terrace, looking east. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.134

Groin vaulting in the structure supporting the covered entrance hall, looking north. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.135

Existing elements of this Rosemary Terrace feature likely remain from the period of significance. Looking northeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.136

Gravel walk along the south façade of the DCMR and the Fountain Court Apartments, looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.137

The upper level of the West Terrace, looking southwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Physical Description & Character-Defining Features / DCMR (cont’d)

Figure 1.5.138

The lower level of the West Terrace, looking west. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.139

Round-arched opening accessing the gravel walk along the south façade, looking northwest. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Figure 1.5.140

West façade of the Fountain Court Apartments, looking east. (Whitney Cox)

Figure 1.5.141

Court formed by the Fountain Court Apartments, looking west. (Whitney Cox)

Figure 1.5.142

The west boundary wall of the DCMR grounds descends the hill from the platform on which the residence was built. Looking southeast. (Robinson & Associates, 2022)

Glossary of Architectural & Landscape Terms

GLOSSARY OF ARCHITECTURAL AND LANDSCAPE TERMS

The purpose of this glossary is to define and provide visual examples of the principal foreign-language or specialized architectural or landscape terms used in the report. Key sources for definitions include:

- Adli-Chebaiki, Lila, and Naima Chabbi-Chemrouk “Vernacular Housing in Algiers: A Semantic and Passive Architecture.” International Journal of Design and Nature and Ecodynamics 10, no. 2 (2015).

- Chergui, Samia. “Le lexique des patrimoines architectural dans la Régence d’Alger.” In Patrimoines du Maghreb et inventaires. Paris: Hermann, 2016.

- Harris, Cyril, ed. Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Architecture. New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1977.

Term English Translation or Definition Image Algerian arch (or arc algérois)

§ An arch shape distinctive to Algeria with a flattened shape and lobed or scalloped detailing at the crown

§ Also referred to as a basket-handle arch

arabesque

§ Intricate pattern of geometric forms or stylized plants used to enrich flat surfaces

§ Arabesque decoration can be painted, inlaid, or molded in stucco

Casbah (or Kasbah)

claustra

djnân (pl. djnâyan)

driba

douèra

duqqâna (or doukana)

§ term adopted during the French colonial period to designate the ensemble of the old town of Algiers within the boundaries marked by the ramparts and dating back to the Ottoman period

§ perforated decorative partition

§ in Algerian domestic architecture, a claustra can function as a wall vent to allow for airflow

§ during the Ottoman period, this type of wall vent was typically made from plaster; during the French Colonial period, it would typically be made from cement

§ during the Ottoman period, if filled with glass (clear or colored), this feature is called a shamsiyât or qamariyât, in reference to the sun rays or the moon light that illuminates a room from these decorated screens

§ Arabic word for garden which was adopted during the Ottoman period as a term used for a country house or country estate

§ entrance space located at the front of the sqîfa

§ guest house or guest room of a country house

§ masonry bench or seat embedded in the thickness of the wall inside the sqîfa for the comfort of visitors awaiting entry

§ often covered with polychrome ceramic tiles, slate, or marble and crowned with an Algerian arch

2

Glossary of Architectural & Landscape Terms (cont’d)

dâr

§ large house with a courtyard around which are arranged a variable number of rooms for domestic use

fahs (pl. fohôs) § the countryside surrounding the historic center of Algiers, also considered as pleasure suburbs

§ during the Ottoman period, dignitaries of the regency of Algiers had their palaces and gardens in the fohôs horseshoe arch (or Arabic arch, Moorish arch)

§ a rounded arch whose curve is a little more than a semicircle so that the opening at the bottom is narrower than its greatest span

§ variations include the pointed horseshoe arch

hzām and swālaf § horizontal (hzâm) and vertical (swālaf) ceramic bands decorating an arcade

qbū (or k’bou) or iwān § in general, an arched alcove built into the wall facing the door of the room; its depth depends on the availability of urban space

§ when the qbū is located in the wall facing the street, it is materialized on the outside by a corbel

§ in large houses inside and outside the city, the qbū becomes an iwān topped

with a cupola, which gives the room a Tshaped configuration marfa’ (pl mrâfa’) § this term means shelf and refers to the shelves found in Algerian arch niches of Moorish Revival residences

noria (or na‛ūra)

§ a device for lifting water from a source to a higher level, such as a waterwheel

§ term is used to refer to both water- and animal-powered wheels qâyam-nâyam

§ refers to the elaborate geometric paneling typically seen on the wood doors of Algerian

§ qâyam refers to the vertical panels, nâyam to the horizontal

plancher à voûtains § structural system consisting of shortspan masonry vaults between steel beams

Glossary of Architectural & Landscape Terms (cont’d)

Qallālīn

§ characterizes construction from the French period

§ a reference to tiles made in the Qallālīn tile workshop in Tunis between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries

§ typical colors are blue, yellow, and green

riyādh

s’hīn

§ a structure in the landscape that provides shelter and is used as a place for relaxation

§ gallery surrounding a central courtyard, usually laid out in a continuous manner around the wast al-dār

sqîfa (pl sqâyaf)

thuya

tomette (or qirā tī)

§ entrance vestibule; a place for receiving and “filtering” visitors

§ often arranged at an angle with a blind spot in order to protect the privacy of the household

§ might be situated some way from the house and be part of the surrounding wall

§ a residence might have more than one sqîfa

§ a genus of evergreen coniferous trees in the cypress family

§ also known as Barbary thuja

§ native to northwestern Africa in the Atlas Mountains

§ thuya logs are used in traditional Algerian construction

§ hexagonal and rectangular terracotta tiles used for floors and produced in Algiers during the Ottoman period

§ arranged geometrically as well as chromatically

§ produced in Provence and other regions of France beginning in the seventeenth century but experienced a revival with the industrialization of manufacturing in the nineteenth century

wast al-dār or (wast eddar)

§ generally, a patio or interior courtyard with a paved or tiled floor, forming the central space of the house and the core of all its distribution

§ literally “middle of the house”

Glossary of Architectural & Landscape Terms (cont’d)

Bibliography

Bibliography

Primary Sources (United States)

National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland – Record Group 59, General Records of the Department of State

Textual (paper) records within this record group include the Central Decimal Files, which cover the period from 1940 to 1963 and generally consist of correspondence, telegrams, and reports exchanged between the Department of State and its diplomatic offices in Algiers. Research within these files focused on records dealing with property acquisition, the repair and maintenance of the buildings and grounds, and project funding, among other related topics.

The documentary materials from the Central Decimal Files include correspondence between the Foreign Buildings Office and the U.S. Consul General regarding potential acquisition of the Villa Oued El Kilaï after World War II and a description of the DCMR grounds and the house exterior and interior soon at that time

The Cartographic and Architectural Records at NARA include maps, charts, and architectural drawings, among other graphic documents. Within Record Group 59, materials related to the U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission Residence include architectural drawings of the buildings and site as they existed in 1979. The drawings were on aperture cards and had to be printed from a microfilm reader. The quality varies widely, and the drawings are often difficult to read. Still, it does not appear that important details from the drawings have been lost.

U.S. Department of State, Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), Rosslyn, Virginia

Research at the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations included the real estate records and the OBO general files. With a few exceptions, the real estate records are primary source documents relating to the acquisition of the CMR in 1947. The original deed and drawings of the DCMR in 1965 are some of the most useful documents in this set of records, including room uses in addition to floor plans at the time. OBO also has in their real estate files photographs taken of the DCMR at various points, mostly in the 1980s and 1990s. OBO also funneled information held at post in digital form to the HSR team. This included various reports related to ongoing studies of the DCMR, such as Swanke Hayden Connell Architects 2013 engineering study, “US Embassy: Algiers – Engineering Condition Assessment Report of Deputy Chief of Mission Residence (DCM).” These documents also included reports related to restoration of the DCMR.

Primary Sources (Algiers)

Office of Facilities Management, US Embassy, Algiers

Materials from the Facilities Management Office in Algiers included photographic and limited textual documentation of recent projects, mainly from the last fifteen years. These materials addressed major conservation projects and repairs, often with detailed information on repair techniques and technologies.

Research in Local Repositories

Additional local research in Algiers was conducted over several months by Professor Samia Chergui of the Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University “Saad Dahlab”

Blida 1, Algeria. She visited key research repositories in Algeria, including the library of the Glycines Center for Diocesan Studies (Les Glycines Centre d’études diocésain), the National Library of Algeria (Bibliothèque nationale D’algérie), and the National Archives (Centre nationale des Archives). Sources at the Glycines library included nineteenth-century books and travel journals, twentieth-century periodicals, and historic maps. The travel journals written by foreign visitors to Algiers provided informative descriptions of the architecture and landscape of the Algerian fohôs Periodicals included titles such as L’Afrique du Nord illustrée, a weekly magazine published from circa 1907 to 1939; Feuillets d’El Djazair (Leaflets of ElDjezaïr), published from 1910 to 1937 by the Committee of Old Algiers, which was founded in 1905 to promote the preservation of the city’s historic buildings; Alger, revue municipale, a monthly magazine published from 1934 to 1962; and the quarterly magazine Revue chantier, among others. Records at the Algerian National Archives included maps and government records related to the administrative organization of Algiers during the post-World War II period, information on historical monuments and sites (1908-1950), and records related to expropriation of property for reasons of public utility (1930-1954) Another important source of information was the Algiers land registry service which holds cadastral maps. The cadastral maps provided information on the villa and its associated landscape elements. In addition to these primary sources, Professor Chergui reviewed and translated key passages from books and scholarly articles covering topics such as Ottoman architecture, urban development, gardens, and traditional construction methods and materials.

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Adli-Chebaiki, L., and N. Chabbi-Chemrouk. “Moorish Architectural Syntax and the Reference to Nature: A Case Study of Algiers.” Eco-Architecture V (2014), 541-551.

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