Lloyd Street Synagogue
Former Lloyd Street Synagogue
Religion
Affiliation
Ecclesiastical or organisational status
OwnershipJewish Museum of Maryland
Status
  • Closed (as a synagogue);
  • Repurposed (as a museum)
Location
Location11 Lloyd Street, Baltimore, Maryland
CountryUnited States
Lloyd Street Synagogue is located in Baltimore
Lloyd Street Synagogue
Location of the former synagogue, now museum, in Baltimore, Maryland
Geographic coordinates39°17′25.7″N 76°36′4.5″W / 39.290472°N 76.601250°W / 39.290472; -76.601250
Architecture
Architect(s)
TypeSynagogue
StyleGreek Revival
General contractorMessrs Curly and Sons
Date established1830 (as a congregation)
Completed1845
Construction cost$20,000
MaterialsBrick
Lloyd Street Synagogue
The former synagogue in 1958
Arealess than one acre
NRHP reference No.78003142
Significant dates
Added to NRHPApril 19, 1978
Designated BCL1971
[1][2]

The Lloyd Street Synagogue is a Reform and Orthodox Jewish former synagogue located on Lloyd Street, Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States. The Greek Revival-style building is the third oldest synagogue building in the United States and was the first synagogue building erected in Maryland. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and designated as a Baltimore City Landmark in 1971.

The Lloyd Street former synagogue building is now owned by the Jewish Museum of Maryland and is open to the public as a museum in the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore.

History

The Lloyd Street Synagogue was built by the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, incorporated on January 29, 1830,[3] as Nidche Yisroel.[4] For the first fifteen years of its existence, services were held in a small room above a local grocery store. The Lloyd Street synagogue was dedicated by the Rev. S. M. Isaacs of New York and the Rev. Isaac Leeser of Philadelphia, together with the ministers of the congregation, Abraham Rice and A. Ansell (Anshel).[4]

In 1889, the building was sold to The St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church, a parish that served mainly immigrants from Lithuania, which used the building until 1905.[5] In 1905, it was sold to congregation Shomrei Mishmeres HaKodesh, an Orthodox Jewish congregation of immigrants from Eastern Europe, which continued to use the building until 1963, when the building was threatened with demolition.[3][6] The effort to preserve Lloyd Street was the impetus for the founding of the Jewish Historical Society of Maryland, now the Jewish Museum of Maryland.[7][1]

Baltimore architects Robert Cary Long, Jr. and William Reasin designed the building in the fashionable Greek Revival style.[3] Four doric columns support a classic pediment, all painted light pink. The body of the building is brick. The building is a near-twin of St. Peter the Apostle Church, designed by Long in 1842.

Lloyd Street Synagogue is the third oldest synagogue building in the United States (several earlier buildings are no longer standing). The two oldest synagogue buildings, both in active use, are the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island and Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Synagogue, in Charleston, South Carolina.[8]

The building was designated as a Baltimore City Landmark in 1971, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978,[1][2] and lies within the Baltimore National Heritage Area.[9]

In 2011, archaeologists uncovered a mikveh under the synagogue. It is believed to be the oldest known mikveh in the United States.[5]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 LeFaivre, Michele (1976). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Lloyd Street Synagogue" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  2. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 ""Baltimore Travel Itinerary-The Lloyd Street and Chizuk Amuno Synagogues:. National Park Service. Retrieved December 29, 2010.
  4. 1 2 Public Domain Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "BALTIMORE". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Retrieved February 18, 2014.
  5. 1 2 Roylance, Frank D. (February 13, 2011). "Jewish ritual bath found in Baltimore may be oldest in U.S." The Baltimore Sun.
  6. ↑ "History". Shomreimish Mishmeres.
  7. ↑ Bilitsky, Helen Mintz (February 2002). "The Jewish Traveler:Baltimore". Hadassah Magazine. Archived from the original on November 23, 2008. Retrieved June 16, 2008.
  8. ↑ Gordon, Mark W. (November 4, 2021). "Rediscovering Jewish Infrastructure: 2022 Update on United States Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Synagogues". American Jewish Historical Society. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  9. ↑ "Lloyd Street Synagogue". Explore Baltimore. Baltimore Heritage Area Association. 2018. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
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