The late-19th-century structure situated in the capital's district, Merkato commonly referred to as "American Gibbi" underwent cultural heritage restoration work. In the 1930s, the structure housed the US Legation. The conserved American Gibbi has served Yemeni and Ethiopian people as a community school for the past 80 years but has degraded in 2018. A year later, the US Embassy in Addis Abeba in partnership with the World Monuments Fund granted 240,000 dollars for the preservation. Tracey Jacobson, US ambassador opened the conserved building last week, with the State Minister for Tourism, Sileshi Girma, and Yemen, Turkey, the UK and Sweden ambassadors in attendance. Tracey described the structure as a tangible representation of both the history that underlies US-Ethiopian relations while a panel of historical and architectural heritage experts discussed the significance of the building in the inauguration.
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