Basic HTML Version
4
Spring
2014
Alexander MacLachlan eyed his precious
school buildings with a critical eye. Meles
Street, where IC is located, is the widest street
in the city. It was originally built as an upper
class residential quarter. A stream, confined
between walls, ran down the middle of it.
Historically, the stream was the ancient River
Meles on the banks of which Homer (the
author of two of ancients Greece’s literary
works, the Iliad and the Odyssey) was said to
be born. But by the early 20th century, the
river had become more or less an open sewer
and a menace to the health of MacLachlan’s
boys and neighborhood.
Nothing would please him more than to
build an arch over the stream and repave
Meles street with small cube granite blocks. In
addition, an engineer reported that two sew-
ers would have to be added on as well. It was
an expensive project. The Municipality would
only pay 60 % of the costs. The rest was up
to MacLachlan and his neighbors. Not only
that, but the governor promptly placed the
entire responsibility of the general oversight
of the job, including hiring the workmen and
suppliers, on MacLachlan himself.
It was the last thing the Protestant Minis-
ter, with his heavy school schedule, needed.
By early 1907, International College was
enjoying its highest enrolment yet. The school
boasted more than 400 students – day and
boarding – with Greek students outnumber-
ing Armenians.
MacLachlan himself was overburdened with
a heavy program not to mention running the
entire administrative and accounting side of
the school.
But “the future wellbeing of the col-
lege and the general material interest of the
neighborhood weighed so heavily on me that
rather than see the plan fail, I finally agreed
to the conditions,” he wrote in his 1937 diary,
Potpourri of Sidelights and Shadows from
Turkey.
He began by inviting all of IC’s neighbors
to discuss the situation. Perhaps unsurpris-
ingly, most were reluctant to help finance the
project. After many months of negotiations,
Protestant Minister, Rev.
Alexander MacLachlan did it
again. His boys had electric
lights at a time when the use
of electricity was still forbidden
in Turkey. He hired a young
engineer and ingeniously
concocted a plan to smuggle
small electric parts to the
country. Bit by bit, the engineer
build the electric plant. The furor
of the Turkish authorities was
cleverly squashed - thanks to the
creative charms of MacLachlan.
But now, a stench was engulfing
his prized school, a stench that
just wouldn’t go unless the
minister himself did something
about it. By now, it was 1908
and the Young Turks were
stirring uncomfortably….
The Adventures of
Alexander MacLachlan:
IC on Meles Street – sideview