80 Forsyth Street

Chinatown | built 1901

Open on the map4 entries

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

1. 1881

   March 28

   Congregation Kol Israel Anshe Poland converts the tenement into a synagogue

   The congregation buys the building at 80 Forsyth Street for $12,000 and remodels it with Gothic-arched upper windows and wrought-iron fire escapes that work in Stars of David. A mikveh, or ritual bath, goes into the ground floor, and the congregation leases it to an operator for $400 a year. At an 1888 trial a judge rules the congregation still owes property taxes, because the baths served all Jews who wanted to use them and not only members.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

2. 1892

   Beth Hamidrash Sha'arei Torah moves into the former synagogue

   After Kol Israel Anshe Poland sells the building and moves into a larger synagogue at 20-22 Forsyth Street, Congregation Beth Hamidrash Sha'arei Torah, formed in 1856, takes over No. 80. In 1906 it hires architect Nathan Langer for extensive alterations. The congregation leaves Forsyth Street by 1930, and by 1946 the building is described as a loft building.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1963

   Painters Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof buy the former synagogue and live and work there

   Abstract Expressionist painters Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof, a married couple, buy the former synagogue at 80 Forsyth Street around 1963. They convert it into two apartments, a duplex on the basement and ground floors and another on the top floors, and use the building as home and studio. Resnick's work later enters collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Museum of Modern Art.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

4. 2013

   The building is sold and the Resnick-Passlof Foundation is founded

   The building is sold in 2013 to help pay for a foundation to show Resnick's work and extend Passlof's legacy. The Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation becomes a nonprofit that preserves, exhibits and publishes the two artists' work, along with that of other painters in their tradition. Resnick had died in 2004 and Passlof in 2011.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

• Constant Change: Tenement to Synagogue to Art Studio -- No. 80 Forsyth StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
• This modest Forsyth Street walkup was once a synagogueEphemeral New York

Nearby

• M. Rosendorff & Son Building277 Grand Street | 7 entries
• 45 Allen Street Houses45 Allen Street | 1 entry
• M.S. 131 / Chinatown YMCA Hester Street Center100 Hester Street | 3 entries
• The Garfield104 Forsyth Street | 3 entries
• John H. Heller House247 Grand Street | 5 entries
• 298 Grand Street5 entries

All 93 buildings with stories in Chinatown