Lloyd Street Synagogue

The Lloyd Street Synagogue is an 1845 Greek Revival style synagogue building in Baltimore, Maryland. One of the oldest synagogues in the United States, Lloyd Street was the first synagogue building erected in Maryland and is the third oldest synagogue building still standing in the United States. Lloyd Street is now owned by the Jewish Museum of Maryland and is open to the public as a museum in the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Lloyd Street Synagogue
Lloyd Street Synagogue
Lloyd Street Synagogue is located in Baltimore
Lloyd Street Synagogue
Lloyd Street Synagogue is located in Maryland
Lloyd Street Synagogue
Lloyd Street Synagogue is located in the United States
Lloyd Street Synagogue
Location11 Lloyd St., Baltimore, Maryland
Coordinates39°17′25.7″N 76°36′4.5″W
Arealess than one acre
Built1841
ArchitectLong, Robert Cary, Jr.; Reasin, William
Architectural styleGreek Revival
NRHP reference No.78003142[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPApril 19, 1978
Designated BCL1971

History

Lloyd Street was built by the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, incorporated on January 29, 1830.[2] In 1889, the building was sold to The St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church, a parish that served mainly immigrants from Lithuania, which used the building until 1905.[3] In 1905, it was sold to congregation Shomrei Mishmeres HaKodesh, an Orthodox Jewish congregation of immigrants from Eastern Europe, which continued to use the building until 1963, when the building was threatened with demolition.[2][4] The effort to preserve Lloyd Street was the impetus for the founding of the Jewish Historical Society of Maryland, now the Jewish Museum of Maryland.[5][6]

Baltimore architects Robert Cary Long, Jr. and William Reasin designed the building in the fashionable Greek Revival style.[2] Four doric columns support a classic pediment, all painted light pink. The body of the building is brick. The building is a near-twin of St. Peter the Apostle Church, designed by Long in 1842.

Lloyd Street is the third oldest synagogue building in the United States (several earlier buildings are no longer standing.) The two oldest synagogue buildings, both still in active use, are the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island and Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Synagogue, in Charleston, South Carolina.[7]

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.[1]

In 2011, archaeologists uncovered a mikveh under the synagogue. It is believed to be the oldest known mikveh in the United States.[3]

  • Lloyd Street Synagogue in 1958
    Lloyd Street Synagogue in 1958

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ""Baltimore Travel Itinerary-The Lloyd Street and Chizuk Amuno Synagogues:. National Park Service. Retrieved December 29, 2010.
  3. Roylance, Frank D. (February 13, 2011). "Jewish ritual bath found in Baltimore may be oldest in U.S." The Baltimore Sun.
  4. "History". Shomreimish Mishmeres.
  5. Bilitsky, Helen Mintz (February 2002). "The Jewish Traveler:Baltimore". Hadassah Magazine. Archived from the original on November 23, 2008. Retrieved June 16, 2008.
  6. Michele LeFaivre (1976). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Lloyd Street Synagogue" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  7. Gordon, Mark W. "Rediscovering Jewish Infrastructure: 2022 Update on United States Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Synagogues", American Jewish Historical Society, November 4, 2021. Accessed February 22, 2023.
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