Youssef Aftimus - Early Life

Early Life

Youssef Aftimus was born on November 25, 1866 to a Greek Catholic family in the historic town of Deir el Qamar. Aftimus attended school at Collège des Frères in his hometown as of 1875. In 1879 he transferred to the Syrian Protestant College (later known as the American University of Beirut to complete his studies where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Aftimus taught Arabic at his university for two years and co-authored an Arabic grammar textbook before he left for New York where he studied civil engineering at the Union College as of 1885; he graduated from UC in 1891. The Pennsylvania Railroad company presented Aftimus with his first job; he worked on the Hudson Canal and the Pennsylvania Railways.
In 1893 Aftimus was working under a pioneer in Neo-Mauresque architecture and was chosen to design the "Persian Palace", "Turkish Village" and "Cairo Street" pavilions for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Cairo Street was a particularly popular attraction in the fair. Aftimus went on to work on the Egyptian pavilion at the Antwerp exposition and the following year he went to Berlin on an extensive research trip on construction engineering before returning to Beirut in late 1896. In 1898 Youssef was recruited by the Municipality of Beirut as municipal engineer and he directed the construction of the Grand Serail Clock tower.
During his work in Beirut he met Manouk Avedissian, better known as Bechara efendi al-Muhandes his future father in law, he married Rose Avedissian in 1899.