The towering, barbed security walls of the current NATO’s Allied Land Command Headquarters in Şirinyer, Izmir (Turkey), shield a cluster of early-twentieth-century buildings. Although repurposed and integrated into the modern military landscape, these buildings retain their original historicist facades to this day. Among them, three grand white edifices, elegantly blending collegiate gothic and classical elements, stand out. Once the cornerstones of an American college with missionary roots, known as the International College of Smyrna, they serve as a poignant reminder of the site's educational legacy. Initially established in 1891 in the Armenian quarter of Izmir/Smyrna, the College outgrew its original location within only two decades of operations, and in 1913, on the eve of WWI, moved to a purpose-built suburban campus that offered expanded educational and boarding facilities. This paper draws on sources from Ottoman, Turkish and American archives to delve into the intricate and layered history of this campus, which, over a brief span of four decades, underwent three significant conversions: first, from productive agrarian grounds known as Paradiso to a non-sectarian American college within the multicultural Ottoman empire; next, in 1937, to the Kızılçullu Village Institute to support the Early Turkish Republic’s rural development project; and finally, in 1952, to NATO’s regional headquarters upon Turkey ‘s formal admission to the organization. The site’s change of hands, accompanied by concurrent changes in place names (Paradiso, Kızılçullu and Şirinyer) undoubtedly mirrors the transition from imperial to national to Cold War statehood. However, rather than interpreting the site solely through the lens of profound ideological ruptures within the Ottoman/Turkish context, as is commonly done, this paper probes the site's remarkable longevity and the resilience of its infrastructure despite turbulent political transitions. It traces a series of transnational pedagogical and curricular exchanges, as well as symbolic legacies, that interconnected these seemingly discrete institutions long after their original purposes had dissolved. Like a historical palimpsest, the pedagogical traces left by one institution transpired through the material infrastructure, influencing future initiatives on the same site. Employing a combination of approaches, including “global microhistory”, “site biography”, and “thick description”, the paper ultimately reveals interactions and transactions that have been obscured by an exclusive focus on national boundaries and narratives.