Commemorating the first Arabic-speaking community in the United States

Founded in 2013

Our Mission

To preserve and promote the history and heritage of the first Arabic-speaking settlement on Washington Street, through innovative programs, partnerships, and dialogue.

 

Founded in 2013

Our Vision

To empower future generations of Arab Americans to preserve, celebrate, and take pride in their immigrant history and to connect this history to the broader American narrative.

 

Projects

Al Qalam Touring App

The WSHS Touring App is a unique bilingual application that offers a virtual tour of the historic Syrian neighborhood on Washington Street. Archival photos, videos and short essays reconstruct what has been lost to development.

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Washington Street Historical society

“Al Qalam: Poets in the Park”Monument

A Memorial to the Poets of the Syrian Colony

History

Learn more about the history of Arab migration to the lower Washington Street neighborhood of Manhattan

Archive Gallery

Check out our library of video and still photographs, interviews, documentaries, etc.

Washington Street in Context

The Demise of the Washington Street Neighborhood

The article below originally appeared as an AP News item on October…
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Palestine at the Centennial Fair of 1876

On 10 May 1876, U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant opened the Centennial…
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Paris, 1913: The Arab Congress

One hundred years ago Muslims and Christians from the Middle East joined…
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Remembering the Pen Bond