Congregation Shearith Israel

2 West 70th Street | also 99 Central Park West | Lincoln Square | built 1897

Open on the map7 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1876

    December 29

    A frame tavern called Park Cottage stands on the corner before the synagogue

    The southwest corner of Central Park West and 70th Street was sold for $25,000 in February 1869 and resold on December 29, 1876. A two-story frame building went up, with the Borger family living upstairs and Park Cottage, a tavern and restaurant, downstairs. In February 1887 a Danish waiter there, Ole Hille, took laudanum and was arrested, but a magistrate discharged him after he said it was for neuralgia.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1895

    June 8

    Congregation Shearith Israel buys the corner and tears down the wooden Park Cottage

    Park Cottage was lost in foreclosure in 1893, by which time rows of houses and apartment buildings surrounded the wooden building. On June 8, 1895 The Sun reported that the congregation had recently bought the southwest corner of Central Park West and 70th Street and was about to build a new synagogue there. The tavern and at least one neighbor were demolished for Brunner & Tryon's building.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1897

    May

    Louis Comfort Tiffany designs the windows, interior and color scheme of the new sanctuary

    When the synagogue was completed in May 1897, its interior was the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany, who made the stained glass windows and also planned the interior design and color scheme. The congregation's history contrasts its neoclassical style with Reform congregations of the period, who were building synagogues in Moorish, Romanesque and Gothic styles.

    Source: shearithisrael.org

  4. 1897

    The oldest Jewish congregation in the US completes its synagogue on Central Park West

    Congregation Shearith Israel was founded in 1654 in New Amsterdam by Jews who arrived from Dutch Brazil, making it the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. Its neoclassical synagogue here, designed by Arnold Brunner, was completed in 1897, with interior decoration by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The Orthodox congregation follows the Spanish and Portuguese rite; its members have included poet Emma Lazarus and Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1897

    Arnold Brunner designs the synagogue as a Roman temple

    Architects Arnold Brunner and Thomas Tryon draw inspiration from the ruins of an ancient synagogue found near the Sea of Galilee, giving Congregation Shearith Israel's new home four giant Corinthian columns, a grand pediment, and a sweeping flight of stone steps. Tiffany Studios supplies the stained glass, and several types of marble clad the interior walls.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1897

    Relics of the congregation's 1730 synagogue move into the new building

    Two millstones from the congregation's original 1730 gristmill synagogue on Mill Street are set into the entrance of the new building, and the old reader's desk is relocated inside as well. A small room called the Small Synagogue is furnished in Georgian style with pieces original to the 1730 building, carrying the congregation's earliest history into its fifth home.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  7. 1974

    March 19

    The city designates the synagogue a landmark but leaves out the congregation's parsonage

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission held its hearing on November 27, 1973, and designated the synagogue on March 19, 1974, calling it the congregation's fourth building since 1729. The congregation supported designating the main building but opposed designating the parsonage next to it, so the commission decided not to consider the parsonage at all. One witness spoke in favor and none against.

    “It opposed the designation of its Parsonage building next to the main building, and the Commission has decided not to consider the Parsonage for designation.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Further reading

Nearby

All 48 buildings with stories in Lincoln Square