Town & Village Synagogue

334 East 14th Street | also 336 East 14th Street | East Village | built 1869

Open on the map4 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. 1868

    May 19

    German Baptists lay the cornerstone of a Romanesque church designed by Julius Boekell

    The First German Baptist Church, organized by missionary John Eschmann within a year of his arrival from Germany in 1845 with twelve members, has 352 members by 1886. Its cornerstone is laid on May 19, 1868, on East 14th Street. Architect Julius Boekell designs a white stone church with wide corbels, groups of tall arched windows and two spires.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1927

    St. Vladimir's Ukrainian Orthodox Church moves into the former Baptist church

    In 1927 St. Vladimir's Ukrainian Orthodox congregation agrees to buy the church for $80,000 and moves in while a dispute over the deed goes to court. The legal tangle takes months to settle, and by September 1932 the congregation is firmly established. Its original spires are later replaced with copper-clad onion domes.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1962

    April 8

    Congregation Tifereth Israel buys the old church as Town and Village Synagogue

    In 1958 the Ukrainian congregation announces that it is buying a former synagogue on West 82nd Street. In spring 1962 the Town and Village Synagogue, Temple Tifereth Israel, buys the building, and its members march from temporary quarters on Avenue B to a 2 p.m. opening ceremony on April 8. The crosses are removed and a large Star of David is added to the central stained glass window.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 2014

    The city designates the former First German Baptist Church a landmark

    New York City designates the building at 334 East 14th Street an individual landmark in 2014. Its design, built in 1869-70 in the German Rundbogenstil, stands at the northern edge of the Kleindeutschland neighborhood. The Landmarks Preservation Commission calls it an early work and the only known church by architect Julius Boekell.

    Source: buildingblocks.villagepreservation.org

Further reading

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