Once upon a time we had a casino Tel Aviv once had a casino in the early twenties. It was not a gambling club, but a cafe-restaurant. The casino was built to boost the night life of Tel Aviv and was located at the far end of Allenby Street, next to the port. The casino was the initiative of new immigrants from Odessa. They had learned that there were plans to build a railroad that would run along the seashore and link the Yafo port with eastern Tel Aviv and the town of Lod. They thought it would be lucrative to locate a casino next to the main traffic artery. Architect Yehuda Magidovitch was appointed to design the casino, which was inaugurated in 1922, to the applause of the celebrities of the day. It was a grand, almost opulent, building and it instantly became a popular venue. The casino's glory was shortlived however. A decade after it opened people complained that it blocked their view and in 1938 the municipality decided to demolish it.  Tel-Aviv electrifies Electricity came to Tel Aviv in the summer of 1923. It was no easy matter to convince its 4,000 residents that the old oil lamps and generators could be replaced by electricity. The contractor was Pinhas Ruttenberg, Berlin was the chief architect, and the workers assigned to the task were recruited from the Third Aliya. Construction began in 1922 and by 1923 the final agreement was signed with the municipality.  All the dreams and styles Tel Aviv is a goldmine of architectural styles. Many architects settled in the city in the twenties and early thirties. They built what came to be known as "dream houses" in the architectural style that was popular in Europe in the second half of the 19th century.  Bauhaus in Tel Aviv Following Hitler's rise to power in 1933, Tel Aviv became home to many Jews fleeing from Nazi Germany. This period of immigration was known as the Fifth or German Aliya. The immigrants were educated, affluent, and left a strong mark on the city for years to come. To begin with, they swelled the population, topping 120,000, and thus helped to upgrade Tel Aviv from a marginal suburb of Yafo to a city in its own right. The newcomers ushered a period of prosperity and growth, culturally, economically and also architecturally. It is thanks to the German Aliya that Tel Aviv, with its balconies and workers' apartment blocks, became one of the leading Bauhaus centers in the world (Bauhaus is the architectural school of Walter Gropius, founded in 1919, which promoted an architectural style emphasizing synthesis of artistic styles and functionality). But even before Bauhaus flourished in Tel Aviv, the city had welcomed architectural experimentation. Architects like Arieh Sharon and Ze'ev Rechter, who immigrated to Israel in 1919, were responsible for scores of buildings and influenced the style of building which dominated Tel Aviv for decades. The Pagoda House on Nahmani-Montefiore streets, designed by architect Alexander Levy in 1925, is expressive of Tel Aviv's architectural boom in the twenties. Inspired by a cafe in the United States, the Pagoda draws on the spirit of the American entertainment centers in the "gay twenties" and merges Oriental and Western styles. The Pagoda is one of a series of imaginative and ornate buildings which were built in Tel Aviv during that period, such as Tabatchnik's Beit Hadekel (Palm House) on Nahalat Binyamin Street, Minor's Beit Bialik, and Tel Aviv's first city hall designed by architect Cherner. Bauhaus - Architecture in Tel Aviv