After their first night on the hill of their future settlement, the pioneers greeted the sunrise over the Jerusalem mountains, uttering the words from the book of Isaiah, "I am the first to Zion." Thus, the town was christened "First to Zion," or Rishon LeZion. However, due to a financial crisis and disagreements within the settlement council, Zalman David Levontin left the settlement that autumn and returned to Russia. He received formal acknowledgement from the settlers that they held no claims against him.

Joseph Feinberg, a Crimea native and Levontin's colleague who had received a European education and was fluent in European languages, was chosen by the settlers to travel to Paris and secure financial assistance from Baron Rothschild. The Baron agreed to allocate 25,000 francs to the settlers, stipulating that the settlement would be led by Samuel Hirsch, a German reformist Rabbi, philosopher of Jewish origin, and a direct protege of the Baron. Thus, a new chapter in the history of Rishon LeZion began.

The house we stand near today was constructed in 1883 using funds from the same 25,000 franc allocation and was initially intended for the settlement's physician, Zvi Pusicelski, originally from the island of Corfu in Greece. Pusicelski served in this role for six years before leaving Rishon LeZion in 1899, subsequently moving to Jaffa and later to Cairo in Egypt, where he passed away in 1906. This building later served as a post office and a city council.