Brotherhood Synagogue

The Society of Friends, generally known as the Quakers, commissioned Gamaliel King and John Kellum to design the meetinghouse completed in 1859. The architects gave them an Anglo-Italianate building: a broad classical pediment, tall windows and a carefully measured facade. The Landmarks Commission’s designation report would later praise the discipline of its design. There is very little here that is simply showing off.

The Friends had been clear about that. Their building committee wanted good proportions while “avoiding all useless ornament.” A pediment was evidently useful. So were the generous windows. The building manages to be solemn without looking forbidding, an achievement easier to admire than to reproduce.

The synagogue’s architectural history describes a structure combining heavy timber with iron posts and beams, light brick behind a facade of Dorchester Olive stone. Its large wooden entrance is sheltered by a curved pediment. The broad triangle above finishes the composition; the smaller curve below brings it down to the scale of a person arriving at the door.

The Friends needed special permission to put a nonresidential building on the Park. Behind the gate, a small forecourt separates the house from the sidewalk. That pause before the entrance still distinguishes it from its neighbors.

The Friends had moved north through several Manhattan addresses. Their Henry Street meetinghouse was sold to Anshe Chesed in 1840; from there they went to Orchard Street, then briefly to a chapel on Fifth Avenue before reaching Gramercy. The Landmarks Commission’s account records the earlier sale. This would not be the first Quaker building to become a synagogue.

Inside, two curving staircases with mahogany handrails rise to the main room. The Sacred Space International guide describes twelve tall, clear windows and a gallery carried on twelve iron columns.

The wooden pews came from the Friends’ earlier meetinghouse on Orchard Street. They were already used furniture when they arrived at this brand-new address.

A large site on Gramercy Park did not have to advertise its possibilities. Ada Louise Huxtable later reported that a developer received an option in 1965 to replace the meetinghouse with a thirty-story apartment building.

The original landmark report makes unusually vivid reading. At the September 21 hearing, fifteen witnesses supported protection. Representatives of the owner and the contract purchaser opposed it. More than seventy-five letters and telegrams arrived in support, along with numerous telephone messages. The building was designated on October 26, 1965, in the opening months of the city’s new landmarks law.

Frank Gilbert, the commission’s first secretary and later executive director, remembered the hearing in his 2011 oral history. A commissioner beside him marveled at the apparently spontaneous public support. Gilbert pointed out the lawyer at the back of the room who had worked hard to organize it. The enthusiasm was real; so was the preparation.

Gilbert credited Benjamin Sonnenberg, who lived nearby at No. 19, with leading the neighbors’ effort. He also remembered the difficulty of obtaining a necessary signature from someone who was away. Even a landmark campaign could be held up by one missing signature.

Protection did not immediately produce a permanent use. A proposed performing-arts center fell through. The United Federation of Teachers acquired the property for meetings and offices, then decided to sell. The building remained standing, and continued to deteriorate.

Brotherhood found its new home in 1974–75. In her June 15, 1975 account, Huxtable put the purchase price at $420,000. Architect James Stewart Polshek and contractor Lawrence Held and Son worked without fees.

The structure was sound, but leaks had brought plaster down inside. New plumbing, wiring and lighting were needed; windows required repair. Polshek chose pale blue walls with creamy-white trim, letting the room’s proportions carry the result.

Money remained tight. Air conditioning could wait. Huxtable reported that construction workers were coming to Friday-night services.

Fundraising continued. In 1976, artist and designer Ismar David created a silk-screen poster for an exhibition and sale benefiting the synagogue. The surviving flyer asks its reader to become a collector, then supplies a coupon. A handsome building still needed its bills paid.

This was the less photogenic part of preservation: a budget, donated professional time, repairs and repeated appeals. Without it, the victory of 1965 would have left Gramercy with an increasingly fragile building and no settled future.

Brotherhood gives the old meetinghouse a busy week. Its egalitarian congregation follows the Conservative Jewish tradition, gathering for Shabbat and holidays, study and celebration. Children come to school, adults come to classes, and volunteers prepare meals for people who need them. The building earns its keep.

Prayer, music and learning

Friday-night and Saturday-morning services give the week its rhythm. Families with young children gather for Tot Shabbat, with stories and song. The community choir welcomes people with or without musical or Hebrew experience; its members sit among the worshippers, helping other worshippers learn the tunes. Concerts bring music into the sanctuary and courtyard, and children have a choir of their own.

Learning starts early. The Nursery School welcomes families from varied backgrounds into a program rooted in play, curiosity and Jewish life. The Hebrew School carries that education forward through study, worship and service. For children with different learning needs, the Tikvah program offers adapted teaching in Hebrew, prayer, Jewish history and holidays. It charges no tuition.

Adults have Hebrew classes, lectures, film discussions and a weekly Lunch & Learn centered on the Torah reading. The program welcomes beginners as well as experienced students. Conversion classes make room for people beginning another kind of Jewish journey. The calendar also makes room for knitting, walks, mahjongg and canasta.

A warm room and a shared meal

The Brotherhood Homeless Shelter has been part of that life since the early 1980s. During the winter season, volunteers prepare and serve dinner, sit and talk with guests, and pack breakfast and lunch for the following day. A warm place to sleep comes with company and a meal at a table. The synagogue’s volunteer page explains how to take part.

Its Social Action Committee also organizes food, clothing, book and blood drives. The annual Chuck Ginsburg Memorial Blood Drive gives neighbors another practical way to help. Brotherhood’s refugee and immigration committee arranges monthly dinners for asylum-seeker families with children in New York City public schools, along with packages of seasonal clothing, toys and games.

Other efforts extend beyond the building. Partnerships with organizations including City Harvest, New York Common Pantry, DOROT and Reading Partners connect members with food assistance, visits and tutoring. Interfaith programs and service projects carry forward the cooperation Block and Stitt began on West 13th Street.

For visitors, Brotherhood publishes information about services, group visits and accessibility. Groups should arrange visits in advance; the upstairs sanctuary has elevator access. Its current calendar is the best place to find the next class, concert or community gathering.

Brotherhood is one of the Park’s cherished, defining institutions. Generations of neighbors have known it through a child’s first school, a holiday service, a friendship, or a shift at the shelter. The building that Gramercy fought to save has given the neighborhood a great deal in return.