Fakhro House was the luxury residence of Yousif Abdurrahman Fakhro, a successful timber and boat merchant at the height of the pearling boom. The original scale and rich detail of Fakhro House invites comparisons to the elaborate houses built by the grand pearl merchants (tijar al-lu’lu), and also offers a unique example of a family home that in early land reclamation practices gradually expanded into the sea as need required.
The owner of a fleet of up to 50 boats, Yousif Abdurrahman Fakhro had his own dock adjacent to his residence, and could watch his fleet landing and departing from the windows of his private apartment and from his seaside majlis. The property’s total area is some 3000 square metres, of which nearly half remains built structure. Yousif Abdurrahman Fakhro’s warehouse (‘amarat), used for both storage and dhow construction, is located nearby in Muharraq’s commercial centre.
Requiring a large waterfront site for the residence in an already heavily built-up coastal neighbourhood, the merchant created the Fakhro property with one of the earliest large-scale land reclamations in Muharraq. As his wealth and his family grew, extensions became necessary. The only way the property could be enlarged was with further land reclamations. This makes Fakhro House unique apart from its splendid architecture and illustrates the importance of sea access for boat and timber merchants.
The eastern half of the property is still in use as a Fakhro family residence.
252, Shaikh Abdulla Bin Ahmid Avenue, Block 215 / 703, 705, 681, Lane 1513, Block 215