USA: Buffalo, New York's Oldest Synagogue Building Threatened with Demolition

 Buffalo, NY. Former Ahavath Sholem synagogue.  A. E. Minks and Sons, architects (1903). Photo credit: David Torke, fixBuffalo.  Click here to see more photos.

USA: Buffalo, New York's Oldest Synagogue Building Threatened with Demolition
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) The former Ahavath Sholom Synagogue at 407 Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo (google map), built in 1903,  is threatened with demolition.  Jewish use of the building ended in the 1960s, and it became home to the Greater New Hope Church of God in Christ.  The structure is now empty and in disrepair.  The building is one of the last standing synagogue of the "facade-dome" type that was popular at the end of the 19th century.  

Architecturally, the building is most readily notable for its single 'onion' style dome set over the central entrance bay of the facade.  Variations of this type of arrangement are known in synagogue architecture beginning in Europe in the mid-19th century.  One example is the destroyed synagogue of Jelgava, Latvia.  The style was especially common in Moorish style buildings such as Ahavath Sholom.  Major American examples include Temple Sinai in Chicago (Dankmar Adler, arch.) and Temple Beth El in New York (Brunner & Tryon, archs.) which were demolished decades ago. Tiny Gemiluth Chassed in Port Gibson, Mississippi survives. Time may not be long for Buffalo's Ahavath Sholom, but local efforts to save the building may stave off the wrecking ball.

 Port Gibson, Mississippi.  Congregation Gemiluth Chassed (1891-92).  Photo: ISJM.

Jelgava, Latvia. Former synagogue (1890?) from a postcard.

I'll be writing more about the plight of the former Ahavath Sholom and the effort to save it soon.  Meanwhile, look at this extensive flickr series of photos of the current condition.  Views of original building blueprints are included.  From these you can see that originally more Moorish details had been planned.

According to the blog fixBuffalo:

In December, Housing Court Judge Patrick Carney issued an order to demolish the City's oldest synagogue, one of the last remaining vestiges of Jewish life on the City's East Side.    The familiar onion domed landmark on Jefferson Avenue was designed by A. E. Minks and Sons and built in 1903.  With the cooperation of Rev. Jerome Ferrell and his congregation, the Greater New Hope Church of God in Christ, this historic structure was designated a local landmark by the City's Preservation Board in 1997.  

 Read the entire post here.

You can read more about the synagogue in this article by Chana Kotzin from the February 10, 2012  issue of the Buffalo Jewish Review.  Kotzin runs the Buffalo Jewish archives and has been collecting history about the building, its congregation and the old East Side Jewish neighborhood. 

The synagogue was designated a local protected site in 1997, but that did not lead to its restoration.  You can read here the entire local landmark designation application from 1997, made available for wider distribution on fixBuffalo with Tim Tielman's assistance.  The building is clearly eligible for National Register listing, and preservationists plan to submit a nomination form to the state soon.  NR designation can be crucial for qualifying for a variety of government sponsored grants and tax credits for any restoration or redevelopment project for the building.
  
My thanks to Cynthia Van Ness and David Torke for helping me with this entry.

USA: Brookhaven (Mississippi) Synagogue Likely to Become Museum

USA: Brookhaven (Mississippi) Synagogue Likely to Become Museum
by Samuel D. Gruber (ISJM)

The 19th-century Temple B'nai Shalom of Brookhaven, Mississippi is likely to be transformed into a museum, if all goes according to plan. Hal Samuels, a member of the small town's last remaining Jewish family, has negotiated the transfer to the local historical society with the assistance of the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, the Jackson based Jewish charitable and educational group that also maintains the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in Utica, Mississippi, and at several satellite sites in synagogues throughout the region.

Read more in the (Mississippi) Daily Leader.

Brookhaven, Mississippi. Temple B'nai Shalom. Photos: Samuel D. Gruber, 1991.

The Brookhaven synagogue is one of the most charming in the South. I had the pleasure of visiting Brookhaven when I was a guest of the Museum of the Southern Jewish experience in 1990. Even at that time, it was clear the synagogue would have to close - or at least undergo a transition. One option - the one that has been tried until now - has been to keep the building open nominally as a synagogue, even though it is rarely used for worship. Its upkeep is donated by the Samuels family and through donations from descendants of Brookhaven Jews. This is a solution that has been used to preserve other small town and rural synagogues such as in Brenham, Texas and Alliance, New Jersey.

As caretakers age, however, it is often hard to guarantee preservation for another generation unless some institutional affiliation is established. The Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life is a pioneer in such arrangements. One of the Institute's goals is that when synagogues of the region must close, that they do so in dignified way, and one that provides the optimum opportunity to protect and preserve the history and memories of the congregation, as well as the physical integrity of the ritual object and art, and the synagogue building, too. Sometimes this means finding a Jewish use for a site, sometimes for an appropriate reuse. More and more, local historical societies are turning to former synagogues as useful facilities. The synagogues are exhibitions themselves, and they are often adaptable for exhibition, lecture and concert activities. Another example of such as transformation as in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

USA: Savannah (Georgia) Historic B’nai Brith Synagogue designed by Jewish Architect Hyman Witcover Recognized for Adaptive Reuse

photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2006


USA: Savannah (Georgia) Historic B’nai Brith Synagogue Designed by Jewish Architect Hyman Witcover Recognized for Adaptive Reuse
by Samuel D. Gruber

The Historic Savannah Foundation (HSF) will present its 2007 preservation award on October 30th to the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) for its restoration and adaptive reuse of the former Congregation B’nai Brith Jacob synagogue. The 2008 HSF Annual Meeting and Preservation Awards to be held at the restored building, which has been adapted for use as the SCAD Student Center. I visited the building when it was still under construction, and have not seen the project finished, but here is some history about the structure, the congregation and the architect.

The former synagogue at 120 Montgomery Street, was built in 1909 and served the Orthodox Congregation until it moved to its new building in 1962. It was later home to Saint Andrew’s Independent Episcopal Church, from 1970 to 2002. SCAD acquired the building in 2003 and began work on a new student center designed by Jairo Delgado Associates and constructed by the Carson Construction Company. The Center was opened in 2006 after a process of renovation and restoration.

While HSF states that the “the Moorish Mediterranean style revival architecture was based on the 1870 Central Synagogue in New York City,” this is only true in the most general sense. The Moorish style became popular in America after the Civil War and large urban (and frequently illustrated) synagogues including the Isaac Wise Synagogue (Plum Street) in Cincinnati (1866), Temple Emanu-El in New York (1868), and Central Synagogue in New York (1872) all helped to popularize the style. In America, the style was embraced by Jews as being up-to-date, progressive and appropriately Jewish. Orthodox congregations, however, were slower to adopt the style and it only became common in Orthodox circles, mostly of post-1880 East European arrivals, one and even two generations after its introduction. The Eldridge Street Synagogue (1887) and Zichron Ephraim/Park East Synagogue (1889-90) in New York were among the first. In Georgia, the Orthodox Congregation Ahavath Achim (Atlanta) built an exotic, if not quite Moorish, synagogue in 1901, with west towers and domes similar - but more dramatic - to B’nai Brith Jacob in Savannah. By that time, most American Reform congregations had moved on to other styles (especially the Classical and Renaissance styles after 1896).

[for more on synagogue architecture in Georgia, although little about B'nai Brith in Savannah, see Steven H. Moffson, “Identity and Assimilation in Synagogue Architecture in Georgia, 1870-1920,” in Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, Vol. 9, Constructing Image, Identity, and Place (2003), pp. 151-165]



all photos by Samuel D. Gruber, April 2006

The 28,834-square-foot, four-story, boxy-looking synagogue was designed by South Carolina born Architect Hyman Witcover (1871- 1936), who in his lifetime was one of Savannah’s most successful and prolific architects. He was also one of the first American-born Jewish architects practicing in the United States. Witcover purportedly had an Orthodox Jewish background, was a member of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in Savannah during the 1890s, and 1904 he joined Congregation Mickve Israel, Savannah's Reform congregation, and in the 1920s served on its Board of Adjunta.

Witcover (sometimes listed as Whitcover) is probably best known for his design of Savannah’s City Hall, a project championed by popular (Jewish) mayor Herman Myers [when Myers died, the city witnessed, “one of the largest processionals of the type ever seen … with a military escort by the detachment of the Savannah Guards and the entire command of the German volunteers.”]

Among Witcover’s other Savannah buildings are the Public Library, the Chatham Armory at the corner of Bull Street and Park Avenue, the Knights of Pythias Castle Hall on Telfair Square (demolished), Hick’s Hotel on Johnson Square (demolished), the Jewish Educational Alliance on Barnard Street, and the Lewis-Kayton House on Drayton Street. He was also an active Mason and designed the Scottish Rite Temple at the corner of Bull and Charlton streets. He designed and consulted on the designs of Masonic temples throughout the United States including temples in Charleston, South Carolina (where he was born); Montgomery, Alabama; and Jacksonville, Florida. A closer look at Witcover's work might point to stylistic and symbolic relationships between American synagogue and masonic temples.

Prominent exterior features of the B'nai Brith Synagogue include two towering domes on the west façade corners, each adorned with the Star of David, and original stained glass windows. According to HSF, “Countless historic elements were painstakingly restored; including ornamental woodwork and wood flooring, plaster castings to repair damaged ornamental columns, and the complete rebuilding of original stained glass windows...The rehabilitation took approximately two years. The center's overall design combines a strong structural foundation with modern amenities and a harmonious aesthetic.”

Most of the Jewish liturgical furnishings and fittings were removed from the building when B’nai Brith Jacob moved to its new home, a modern building at 5444 Abercorn Street. The Ark, bimah and eternal light are all installed in the chapel of the new synagogue. Benches and the old chandeliers are in the social hall. The new building is best known for the east wall of its sanctuary decorated with two 30-foot murals depicting the symbols of the 12 tribes, historic events from the Bible, symbolic images for each Jewish holiday, and images of Jewish ritual objects (At the time of this writing I do not know the name of the architect and artist of the 1962 building).

Congregation B'nai Brith Jacob was organized in 1861 under the leadership of Rabbi Jacob Rosenfeld, establishing a place of worship in Amory Hall. In 1866, the congregation built a wood frame building on the northeast corner of State and Montgomery Streets. Plans for a new and larger synagogue at the same site were made in 1907 and the building was dedicated in 1909 at a cost of $45,000. Since that time the congregation has remained one of the largest, most vibrant and active Orthodox communities in the American South.

The mission of Historic Savannah Foundation is to preserve and protect Savannah's heritage through advocacy, education and community involvement.