USA: Harlem's Baptist Temple Church, formerly Congregation Ohab Zedek is Partly Demolished

New York, NY. Baptist Temple Church during demolition. Photo: Austin2Harlem

New York, NY. Congregation Ohab Zedek, from When Harlem was Jewish by Jeffrey S. Gurock.

New York, NY. Baptist Temple Church before demolition. Note removal of Jewish symbols from facade.
Photo: unsourced from web

USA: Harlem's Baptist Temple Church, formerly Congregation Ohab Zedek is Partly Demolished

(ISJM) Last week city workmen torn down part of the facade and roof of the former Congregation Ohab Zedek at 18 West 116th Street in Harlem New York The structure has served a Baptist Temple Church for more than a half century. The New York City Department of Buildings took action because of structural damage to the church. There was a large crack running through the top part of the facade which the city feared would collapse. The cause of the crack is undetermined, but it may be in part the result of destabilization caused by the considerable construction work in the neighborhood in recent years, including the a large apartment building erected immediacy to the east of the 1906 brick sanctuary.

At the time of writing it is not clear what the future hold for the building. The only likelihood of rebuilding would be if the damage caused by the crack and subsequent demolition is covered by insurance. Even if that is the case, it is unlikely that insurance would cover any subsequent damage caused by the building's being opened to the elements. It is reported that the roof over the far end of the sanctuary remains intact.

You can see pictures of the demolition at two sites online:

http://harlemcondolife.com/2009/09/26/harlems-baptist-temple-church-condemned/

http://curbed.com/archives/2009/09/23/curbedwire_harlem_church_destructoporn_problems_on_park.php?o=0

Congregation Ohab Zedek was one of the many synagogue founded in Harlem at the beginning of the 20th century. 1906 was also the year the construction began on nearby Temple Israel, now Mt. Olivet Baptist Church.

For the Jewish history of the neighborhood the best source remains Jeffrey S. Gurock, When Harlem Was Jewish, 1870- 1930 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979). An overview of the former synagogues in the area can found online in David Dunlap's 2002 New York Times article "Vestiges of Harlem's Jewish Past" (New York Times, Friday, June 7, 2002)

Ohab Zedek was founded by Hungarian Jews who had moved north from the Lower East Side. The congregation modernized with the new buildng, hiring its first English-speaking rabbi and introducing wildly popular Yossele Rosenblatt as its cantor.

Across the 116th Street, according to Dunlap, at "at No. 37, is the Salvation and Deliverance Church. This was once Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein's Institutional Synagogue, which drew new generations to Orthodoxy by offering social, educational and recreational services, inspiring a phenomenon known as the ''shul with the pool.'' Goldstein held huge youth rallies in a nearby theater."

This demolition calls to mind the collapse and consequent demolition of the First Roumanian Congregation on the Lower East Side, and points out how threatened many older religious buildings are. Even building that are in use and seem viable can be overwhelmed by catastrophe in an instant, and not survive the blow. To my knowledge Baptist Temple Church was never fully documented - all churches and synagogues should be both for history and for their own insurance purposes.

Arnold W. Brunner, Denzel Washington & American Gangster

Arnold W. Brunner, Denzel Washington, American Gangster & Temple Israel of Harlem
by Samuel D. Gruber

Many of you may know that I have been researching the life and work of American Jewish architect Arnold W. Brunner, in this 150th year since his birth. So it is natural that I might tend towards over emphasizing Brunner's importance, presence and influence. Indeed, I have recently identified a few unattributed synagogue buildings outside of New York as likely works by Brunner, or at least high-quality knock-offs.

Still, I wasn't thinking Brunner when I took time off to relax and watch the very good (but very violent) Ridley Scott film American Gangster with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. But sure enough, as the film reaches its climactic end, there was Brunner! With the cops closing in, Denzel Washington (as drug dealer Frank Lucas) takes his family to church, and as soon as he opened the door - without even revealing much - I knew he was in Mt. Olivet Baptist Church at 120th & Lenox Ave. (now also Malcolm x Boulevard) in Harlem, formerly Temple Israel, Brunner's most monumental (completed) synagogue, dedicated in 1907. Most of the camera work is on Denzel Washington, so one only glimpses the impressive east wall of the sanctuary. There one sees the classical aedicule of the original Ark still intact, now (and probably since 1920) with a cross suspended above it. This continues this weeks theme of synagogues into churches - and expands it it include churches into Hollywood sets.

This building was only a synagogue for a short time. It’s dedication on May 17, 1907, was covered in the New York Times. The new building was described, but the architect was not mentioned: “The new edifice is of the Grecian type of architecture, and is built of light gray brick and granite. Within the temple is severely simple, being entirely in white. The only bit of gorgeous color is made by the doors of the ark. This, like the pipes of the great organ, is of gold, and the arch over it is supported with columns of marble. The choir loft is sustained by six monoliths of marble.”

Today the interior is richly painted, so Brunner’s serene classicism (still visible in Syracuse’ Temple Society of Concord - see earlier blog) – is less easy to see. But all the original architectural details, and the stained glass windows, are there.

The opening of the synagogue coincided with the beginning of the transition of Harlem to New York's (and America's) Africa-American cultural capital. Temple Israel sold the building in 1920 and moved to the Upper West Side (to another classical-style synagogue, this one designed by Willian Tachau and now Young Israel of the Upper West Side). The building as church witnessed the Harlem (Black) Renaissance and the subsequent vicissitudes of the neighborhood - now once again on the up-and-up.

I attach some recent pictures of Mt. Olivet Baptist Church which show it better. It is well maintained, and a much loved Harlem landmark - at least unofficially. I think it is not listed on the National Register of Historic Places, nor is it a New York City Landmark.

This isn’t the first Brunner building to make it to the movies. The 1981 film version of E.L, Doctorow’s Ragtime (directed by Milos Forman) featured the former Renaissance Revival style Free Public Baths on East 11^th Street near Tompkins Square, built in 1904-05. That structure was designated a New York City Landmark earlier this year.