İzmir Atatürk Museum

Built between 1875 – 1880 in Neo – Classical Style composed of a mixture of Ottoman and Levantine Architecture, Ataturk Museum is on the first Kordon (Ataturk Street). It was built as a house by its first owner Takfor Efendi, a carpet merchant; after September 9, 1922, Turkish Army used the building as a headquarters; in 1923 when Izmir Economy Congress assembled, Ataturk carried out his private studies here. At the end of the congress, the headcourters were removed from this building, and it was leased to Naim Bey to be used as a hotel. On October 13, 1926, the building was bought by Izmir Municipality and given as a gift to Ataturk by placing new household goods. Ataturk used this house when he came to Izmir between 1930 – 1934. On September 25, 1940, Izmir Municipality expropriated the building to turn it into a museum. The museum was opened to the public with a ceremony on September 11, 1941, which coincided with the 19th anniversary of Ataturk's arrival in Izmir. After October 5, 1962, the museum was named "Ataturk Provincial Public Library and Izmir City Ataturk Museum". On December 28, 1972, the ownership of the building was given to the Izmir Archeology Museum with the letter number 12088 of the Prime Ministry Undersecretariat of Culture. After being restored and refurbished, it was opened to visitors as "Ataturk and Ethnography Museum" with a ceremony on October 29, 1978. After the ethnographic artifacts in the museum were moved to the new Ethnography Museum, which was opened on May 13, 1988, the name of the museum became "Ataturk Museum". On the first floor, there are rooms for Ataturk’s private use. These are meeting room, study room, bedroom, guest room, barber's room, guard's room, waiting and reception room, library, dining room and the bathroom. In the meeting room, there is a roulette table with green broadcloth and are 12 Cosmos brand chairs around it. Some scenes from Shakespeare's works were animated on the tile plates on the backs of 10 small mahogany chairs placed against the walls of the hall.