Oussani, Joseph

Joseph Oussani was born on December 21, 1865, in Bagdad, Mesopotamia, as the son of Thomas Oussani, a farmer and sheep-raiser. Raised in Bagdad with a strong education in Arabic and French, he became a dry-goods merchant in Teheran, Persia, at nineteen and spent two years buying rugs in Kermanshah for shipment to Bagdad, Europe, and the New World. Moving to Chicago with his brother Yak for the World’s Fair, they built the Persian Palace on the Midway Plaisance to display Persian goods and Oriental rugs, after which they established a New York City store on Madison Avenue and Twenty-third Street alongside a Turkish and Egyptian cigarette manufacturing business.

Transitioning to real estate in New York City after dissolving the partnership in 1900, Oussani built and improved residences, retaining two seven-story Cathedral Parkway apartment houses named Semiramis and The Zenobia as well as selling a sixty-four acre Westchester County tract in Pocantico Hills to John D. Rockefeller. He relocated to California in 1915 during the San Francisco Exposition, purchasing the 320-acre George Helm place seven miles northeast of Fresno to raise grapes, figs, and plums while becoming an active member of the California Associated Raisin Company. Residing in Fresno at Ventura Avenue and Fourth Street with his London-born wife Gladys Holmes, Oussani traveled extensively with his family across Europe, Egypt, Syria, and Mount Lebanon, which included an audience with Pope Pius X and witnessing the coronation of King George.