My presentation will examine the loss, and the transformation, of Jerusalem from an urban Palestinian center during the late Ottoman and British Mandatory periods into a periphery following the 1948 war. While the city’s western part was colonized by the newly created state, the eastern part came under Jordanian control. With the partition, the Arab section of the city lost its commercial and economic center, previously located in the west, and what became the Jewish section lost its connection with the sacred sites and the historical city. The city in the east was reduced in size to what it was around a century before, and its residents included a large number of refugees from the western section. The city in the west was in no position to compete with the urbanity of Tel Aviv and was reduced largely to a locality on the frontier. The historical transformation of the city’s economy was related to its expansion towards the west in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was connected with the faster transportation system that included the train line between Jerusalem and Jaffa. As it happened, the city hall, along with the government house, train station, and the post office were now under Israel’s control. The religious sites had become, once again, the center of the eastern side, and thus transformed the city into a mirror image of its distant past. The presentation will highlight the urban changes that took place before Israel through the extensive use of memoirs from the period. The memoirs include those of musician Wasif Jawhariyeh, educator Khalil Sakakini, and businessman Jiries Salti among others. It will highlight the period of transformation and speculate on the possible impact of the loss of the city’s centrality in the lives of the Palestinians.