New Bethel Way of the Cross Church of Christ
23 West 118th Street | Harlem | built 1920
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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.
- 1900
Congregation Shaare Zedek of Harlem builds a Moorish Revival synagogue
Michael Bernstein designed the Moorish Revival synagogue for Congregation Shaare Zedek of Harlem, a Conservative congregation that split from the Henry Street Shaare Zedek in 1897. The congregation bought lots on West 118th Street in 1899, and the $50,000 building was finished in September 1900, in time for the High Holy Days. Twin towers carry copper-covered domes with Star of David finials, and the sanctuary has a balcony and a round-arched niche that originally held the Torah ark.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1935
Canaan Baptist Church buys the former synagogue
After Shaare Zedek moved to the Upper West Side in 1923, the Harlem building went to another congregation, Chevra Talmud Torah Dagustow. In 1935 it was sold to Canaan Baptist Church, a Black congregation founded three years earlier. Canaan Baptist stayed until 1966, after it began erecting a new church on Saint Nicholas Avenue in 1959.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1966
New Bethel Way of the Cross Church of Christ moves into the former synagogue
Canaan Baptist moved out in 1966, and New Bethel Way of the Cross Church of Christ moved in that year. The congregation had worshipped nearby, in a building on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, but found it insufficient. It has used the former synagogue since.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2015
The former synagogue is added to the National Register of Historic Places
The building at 23 West 118th Street was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 23, 2015, after its listing on the New York State Register in December 2014. The two-story Moorish Revival structure was designed by Michael Bernstein for Congregation Shaare Zedek of Harlem. Since 1966 it has housed New Bethel Way of the Cross Church of Christ.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
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