Ankara in the Ottoman Period, as many other cities in the Ottoman Empire, was a settlement where the Muslim population, as well as non-Muslim; Armenians, Greeks and Jews coexisted. Particularly, from 16th to the early 20th century, a large part of Ankara's Jewish community lived together with the Muslim population in the Jewish Quarter, now known as İstiklal Quarter. Jewish Quarter is an important cultural heritage site, with its street pattern and elements, traditional houses, religious monuments as the synagogue, mosques and masjids, those reflecting the social, cultural and physical characteristics of the period. Today, although the Jewish Quarter completely lost its Jewish population and has many social and physical problems, it still sustains its original physical structure and the integrity of historical tissue to a considerable extent. This article aims to present the general historical and tissue characteristics of the Jewish Quarter along with the architectural features of traditional houses. Within the scope of this article, the original social and physical properties of the quarter, the development process and interventions in time are discussed. Finally, the current social structure, tissue character and condition of the Jewish Quarter along with problems of the traditional residential architecture are discussed.