Maktab Anbar (Arabic: مكتب عنبر, lit.
The house was built as a private residence by a local Jewish notable Mr. Anbar in the mid 19th century and was later confiscated by the Ottoman government after Mr. Anbar's bankruptcy.
Due to the cost of building, the owner turned the building into the Damascus Civil Preparatory School, which was a prestigious, expensive, tuition-based school for the children of the land-owning families of Damascus.
[1] According to Philip Khoury, many Syrian nationalist leaders who worked and were co-opted by the French from 1928 and independence in 1946, were graduates of Maktab Anbar.
It now holds a library exhibition hall, museum and craft workshops.