The house in the Zarif area of Beirut was built by the Mezher family in 1920. It is a hybrid Levantine design- combining Arabic fixtures and a Lebanese central hall with an elongated Venetian Palazzo plan. It was turned into the British Ambassador's house where General Edward Spears lived from 1941 till 1944. In 1984 Mohammad Barakat bought it, protecting it from being squatted by militias, and then established it firstly as an orphanage for Social Welfare Institution Dar Al Aytam Al Islamiyeh’s deaf and blind children. Since 2002 Dar Al Aytam has maintained it as an administration centre.

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