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SAHARA Highlights: Refuge
Jun 3, 2025
by
By SAHARA Co-Editors Jacqueline Spafford and Jeannine Keefer, and Associate Editor Meral Ekincioglu
This month’s Highlights provide an interesting illustration of how searches on a concept can bring unexpected results. Using the terms refuge, asylum, shelter, protection, welfare, persecution, poverty or charity as SAHARA search keywords, we get some fascinating results: refugee camps, squatter settlements, medical asylums, orphanages, almshouses, churches, and some surprises such as a Greyhound bus terminal. Not all the entities included here necessarily provide protection in a way that a person seeking shelter might desire, but rather indicate the intentions of the institution, such as orphanages and psychiatric asylums. It is important to remember that the images in SAHARA are contributed by hundreds of different member-photographers or by others on their behalf. The advantage of this model is a wide-ranging collection which reflects the scholarly interests of SAH members. A disadvantage is the number of variables in the descriptive metadata, a common issue with crowd-sourced information. For this reason, end users need to be somewhat creative in their searches.
As always, thank you to the many contributors who make SAHARA the rich collection it is. Please consider contributing your images – there are many areas needing expanded content.
1. The Colored Orphan Industrial Home, Lexington, Kentucky, US, established 1894, rebuilt 1913. Now a museum, the orphanage operated until 1988. In addition to housing orphans, the home was also a refuge for elderly women. Photograph by Dell Upton, 2005.
2. Aida Palestinian refugee camp, West Bank, Israel, 2007-2012. Photograph by Irit Katz, 2007.
3. Aldo van Eyck, Amsterdam Municipal Orphanage, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1955-1960. Van Eyck envisioned the home for children as a small city, and sited it in the outskirts of Amsterdam. It became a model for school buildings internationally. Photograph by Dirk van den Heuvel, 2016.
4. Greyhound Bus Terminal, Birmingham, Alabama, United States, ca. 1955. This terminal provided a refuge for civil rights freedom riders whose bus had been attacked and burned. They took shelter in the terminal for several days, waiting for a bus to take them to Montgomery, AL. Photograph by Dell Upton, 2010.
5. Anafiotika, Athens, Greece, 1840 onward. Built on the northern slope of the Acropolis, this neighborhood housed Greek refugees from Asia Minor. Photograph by Carol H. Krinsky, 1997.
6. The Old Almshouses, Stafford, England, UK, ca 1600. Photograph by Hannah Kaemmer, 2023.
7. Dheisheh Refugee Camp, Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, 1949. Photograph by Anas Alkhatib, 2023.
8. Friends Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, 1814-1817 with additions in 1828 and 1871. Established by the Quakers, drawing on the belief in moral and dignified treatment, it was the first private, non-profit psychiatric hospital in the United States and became the model for many other facilities. Photography by Dell Upton, 1988.
9. Squatter settlement, Thessaloniki, Greece, ca. 1922-1923. Located outside the inner-city walls, the settlement was inhabited by refugees of the Greco-Turkish War. Photograph by Carol H. Krinsky, 1996.
10. Curtis and Davis, Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana, US, designed 1967 and built 1971-1975. The sports arena was used as a shelter for refugees of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Photograph by Dell Upton, 2012.
11. John Haviland, The Dorrance Hamilton Building, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1824-1826. Formerly the Deaf and Dumb Asylum of Pennsylvania. Photograph by Peter Clericuzio, 2009.
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At the center of SAH Celebrates is the Charnley-Persky House (1891–1892), a National Historic Landmark and a Chicago Landmark designed by Louis Sullivan with assistance from Frank Lloyd Wright, that serves as SAH headquarters. SAH Celebrates highlights the importance of fostering a supportive community whose efforts ensure the stewardship of architectural gems like the Charnley-Persky House.
Proceeds benefit the ongoing maintenance and care of the Charnley-Persky House and SAH's educational programs and publications, including SAH Archipedia and Buildings of the United States.
T. Gunny Harboe, FAIA
Founder, Harboe Architects
Michelangelo Sabatino, PhD
Professor, Director of Ph.D. Program in Architecture, Inaugural John Vinci Distinguished Research Fellow, Illinois Institute of Technology
Founder, Harboe Architects
Michelangelo Sabatino, PhD
Professor, Director of Ph.D. Program in Architecture, Inaugural John Vinci Distinguished Research Fellow, Illinois Institute of Technology
Laurence O. Booth, FAIA
Booth Hansen Architects
Rebekah Coffman
Chicago History Museum
Stuart Cohen, FAIA
Cohen-Hacker Architects
Thomas M. Dietz
Alison Fisher
Art Institute of Chicago
Scott Fortman
Institute of Classical Architecture and Art, Chicago-Midwest Chapter
Keith Goad
The Keith Goad Group, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Chicago
Chandra Goldsmith
IIT CoA Board of Advisors
Barbara Gordon
Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy
Eleanor Gorski
Chicago Architecture Center
Stuart Graff
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
Julie Hacker, FAIA
Cohen-Hacker Architects
Sarah Herda
Graham Foundation
Harry Hunderman, FAIA
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc
Lisa Key
Driehaus Museum
Nancy and Thomas Klein
SAH Chicago Chapter
Thomas Leslie
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Jen Masengarb
AIA Chicago
Bonnie McDonald
Landmarks Illinois
Justin Miller
Docomomo US/Chicago
Ward Miller
Preservation Chicago
Heather Hyde Minor
University of Notre Dame
Keith N. Morgan, FSAH
SAH Past President
Sarah Rogers Morris
University of Illinois at Chicago
John K. Notz Jr.
SAH Benefactor Member
Keith Olsen
Olsen Vranas Architects
Abby Persky
Chicago, IL
Laurie Petersen
Charnley-Persky House Board Member
Charlie Pipal
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Deborah Slaton
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Assocites, Inc.
Cynthia Vranas
Mies Van der Rohe Society
Cynthia Weese, FAIA
Weese, Langley, Weese Architects and Charnley-Persky House Board Member
Ernie Wong
Commission on Chicago Landmarks
Booth Hansen Architects
Rebekah Coffman
Chicago History Museum
Stuart Cohen, FAIA
Cohen-Hacker Architects
Thomas M. Dietz
Jaeger Nickola Kuhlman & Associates
Art Institute of Chicago
Scott Fortman
Institute of Classical Architecture and Art, Chicago-Midwest Chapter
Keith Goad
The Keith Goad Group, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Chicago
Chandra Goldsmith
IIT CoA Board of Advisors
Barbara Gordon
Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy
Eleanor Gorski
Chicago Architecture Center
Stuart Graff
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
Julie Hacker, FAIA
Cohen-Hacker Architects
Sarah Herda
Graham Foundation
Harry Hunderman, FAIA
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc
Lisa Key
Driehaus Museum
Nancy and Thomas Klein
SAH Chicago Chapter
Thomas Leslie
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Jen Masengarb
AIA Chicago
Bonnie McDonald
Landmarks Illinois
Justin Miller
Docomomo US/Chicago
Ward Miller
Preservation Chicago
Heather Hyde Minor
University of Notre Dame
Keith N. Morgan, FSAH
SAH Past President
Sarah Rogers Morris
University of Illinois at Chicago
John K. Notz Jr.
SAH Benefactor Member
Keith Olsen
Olsen Vranas Architects
Abby Persky
Chicago, IL
Laurie Petersen
Charnley-Persky House Board Member
Charlie Pipal
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Deborah Slaton
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Assocites, Inc.
Chris-Annmarie Spencer, AIA, NOMA
AIA Chicago Foundation
Cynthia Vranas
Mies Van der Rohe Society
Cynthia Weese, FAIA
Weese, Langley, Weese Architects and Charnley-Persky House Board Member
Ernie Wong
Commission on Chicago Landmarks
Download the prospectus for information about sponsorship and advertising opportunities. Please contact Ben Thomas at 312-573-1365 if you have questions.
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SAHARA Highlights: Refuge
Jun 3, 2025
by
By SAHARA Co-Editors Jacqueline Spafford and Jeannine Keefer, and Associate Editor Meral Ekincioglu
This month’s Highlights provide an interesting illustration of how searches on a concept can bring unexpected results. Using the terms refuge, asylum, shelter, protection, welfare, persecution, poverty or charity as SAHARA search keywords, we get some fascinating results: refugee camps, squatter settlements, medical asylums, orphanages, almshouses, churches, and some surprises such as a Greyhound bus terminal. Not all the entities included here necessarily provide protection in a way that a person seeking shelter might desire, but rather indicate the intentions of the institution, such as orphanages and psychiatric asylums. It is important to remember that the images in SAHARA are contributed by hundreds of different member-photographers or by others on their behalf. The advantage of this model is a wide-ranging collection which reflects the scholarly interests of SAH members. A disadvantage is the number of variables in the descriptive metadata, a common issue with crowd-sourced information. For this reason, end users need to be somewhat creative in their searches.
As always, thank you to the many contributors who make SAHARA the rich collection it is. Please consider contributing your images – there are many areas needing expanded content.
1. The Colored Orphan Industrial Home, Lexington, Kentucky, US, established 1894, rebuilt 1913. Now a museum, the orphanage operated until 1988. In addition to housing orphans, the home was also a refuge for elderly women. Photograph by Dell Upton, 2005.
2. Aida Palestinian refugee camp, West Bank, Israel, 2007-2012. Photograph by Irit Katz, 2007.
3. Aldo van Eyck, Amsterdam Municipal Orphanage, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1955-1960. Van Eyck envisioned the home for children as a small city, and sited it in the outskirts of Amsterdam. It became a model for school buildings internationally. Photograph by Dirk van den Heuvel, 2016.
4. Greyhound Bus Terminal, Birmingham, Alabama, United States, ca. 1955. This terminal provided a refuge for civil rights freedom riders whose bus had been attacked and burned. They took shelter in the terminal for several days, waiting for a bus to take them to Montgomery, AL. Photograph by Dell Upton, 2010.
5. Anafiotika, Athens, Greece, 1840 onward. Built on the northern slope of the Acropolis, this neighborhood housed Greek refugees from Asia Minor. Photograph by Carol H. Krinsky, 1997.
6. The Old Almshouses, Stafford, England, UK, ca 1600. Photograph by Hannah Kaemmer, 2023.
7. Dheisheh Refugee Camp, Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, 1949. Photograph by Anas Alkhatib, 2023.
8. Friends Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, 1814-1817 with additions in 1828 and 1871. Established by the Quakers, drawing on the belief in moral and dignified treatment, it was the first private, non-profit psychiatric hospital in the United States and became the model for many other facilities. Photography by Dell Upton, 1988.
9. Squatter settlement, Thessaloniki, Greece, ca. 1922-1923. Located outside the inner-city walls, the settlement was inhabited by refugees of the Greco-Turkish War. Photograph by Carol H. Krinsky, 1996.
10. Curtis and Davis, Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana, US, designed 1967 and built 1971-1975. The sports arena was used as a shelter for refugees of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Photograph by Dell Upton, 2012.
11. John Haviland, The Dorrance Hamilton Building, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1824-1826. Formerly the Deaf and Dumb Asylum of Pennsylvania. Photograph by Peter Clericuzio, 2009.
News Home Blocks
SAHARA Highlights: Refuge
Jun 3, 2025
by
By SAHARA Co-Editors Jacqueline Spafford and Jeannine Keefer, and Associate Editor Meral Ekincioglu
This month’s Highlights provide an interesting illustration of how searches on a concept can bring unexpected results. Using the terms refuge, asylum, shelter, protection, welfare, persecution, poverty or charity as SAHARA search keywords, we get some fascinating results: refugee camps, squatter settlements, medical asylums, orphanages, almshouses, churches, and some surprises such as a Greyhound bus terminal. Not all the entities included here necessarily provide protection in a way that a person seeking shelter might desire, but rather indicate the intentions of the institution, such as orphanages and psychiatric asylums. It is important to remember that the images in SAHARA are contributed by hundreds of different member-photographers or by others on their behalf. The advantage of this model is a wide-ranging collection which reflects the scholarly interests of SAH members. A disadvantage is the number of variables in the descriptive metadata, a common issue with crowd-sourced information. For this reason, end users need to be somewhat creative in their searches.
As always, thank you to the many contributors who make SAHARA the rich collection it is. Please consider contributing your images – there are many areas needing expanded content.
1. The Colored Orphan Industrial Home, Lexington, Kentucky, US, established 1894, rebuilt 1913. Now a museum, the orphanage operated until 1988. In addition to housing orphans, the home was also a refuge for elderly women. Photograph by Dell Upton, 2005.
2. Aida Palestinian refugee camp, West Bank, Israel, 2007-2012. Photograph by Irit Katz, 2007.
3. Aldo van Eyck, Amsterdam Municipal Orphanage, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1955-1960. Van Eyck envisioned the home for children as a small city, and sited it in the outskirts of Amsterdam. It became a model for school buildings internationally. Photograph by Dirk van den Heuvel, 2016.
4. Greyhound Bus Terminal, Birmingham, Alabama, United States, ca. 1955. This terminal provided a refuge for civil rights freedom riders whose bus had been attacked and burned. They took shelter in the terminal for several days, waiting for a bus to take them to Montgomery, AL. Photograph by Dell Upton, 2010.
5. Anafiotika, Athens, Greece, 1840 onward. Built on the northern slope of the Acropolis, this neighborhood housed Greek refugees from Asia Minor. Photograph by Carol H. Krinsky, 1997.
6. The Old Almshouses, Stafford, England, UK, ca 1600. Photograph by Hannah Kaemmer, 2023.
7. Dheisheh Refugee Camp, Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, 1949. Photograph by Anas Alkhatib, 2023.
8. Friends Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, 1814-1817 with additions in 1828 and 1871. Established by the Quakers, drawing on the belief in moral and dignified treatment, it was the first private, non-profit psychiatric hospital in the United States and became the model for many other facilities. Photography by Dell Upton, 1988.
9. Squatter settlement, Thessaloniki, Greece, ca. 1922-1923. Located outside the inner-city walls, the settlement was inhabited by refugees of the Greco-Turkish War. Photograph by Carol H. Krinsky, 1996.
10. Curtis and Davis, Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana, US, designed 1967 and built 1971-1975. The sports arena was used as a shelter for refugees of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Photograph by Dell Upton, 2012.
11. John Haviland, The Dorrance Hamilton Building, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1824-1826. Formerly the Deaf and Dumb Asylum of Pennsylvania. Photograph by Peter Clericuzio, 2009.
