Brotherhood Synagogue

28 Gramercy Park South | Gramercy | built 1859

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.

1859
Quakers build a plain Friends Meeting House facing Gramercy Park
In 1859 the Society of Friends, or Quakers, built this meeting house on Gramercy Park South to designs by the architectural firm King & Kellum. The Quakers worshipped here for almost a century before leaving in 1958. Inside, the sanctuary still has Quaker pews, some more than 150 years old, and the original Quaker sounding board, now above the ark.
Source: Village Preservation
1859
The Quaker meeting house serves as an Underground Railroad station
The Friends Meeting House at 28 Gramercy Park South, established by Quakers in 1859, serves as an Underground Railroad station before the Civil War. The building later becomes home to the Brotherhood Synagogue.
Source: Wikipedia
1975
The Brotherhood Synagogue buys and restores the old meeting house
Rabbi Irving J. Block founded the Brotherhood Synagogue in 1954 with 23 members, and for two decades it shared the Village Presbyterian Church on West 13th Street. A developer bought the empty meeting house in 1964 planning apartments, but the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated it in 1965. Block arranged to buy the building in 1974, completing the deal in 1975, and architect James Stewart Polshek restored it pro bono.
Source: Village Preservation

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