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Beth Sholom Synagogue

Excellent
  • Prairie School/Wrightian
  • Identity of Building/Site
  • History of Building/Site

Beth Sholom Synagogue

Credit

Wikimedia Commons

Site overview

Beth Sholom Synagogue is nationally significant as one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most important commissions during his long, productive, and influential career. Constructed between 1954 and 1959, the building is Wright’s only synagogue among a relatively small number of religious commissions. Both a product of its time and place, and symbolically and liturgically grounded in Judaic tradition, the glass pyramid is an unforgettable presence in the suburban Philadelphia landscape, day or night. Its power as a building stemmed from the fruitful collaboration between the famous architect and the congregation’s rabbi, Mortimer J. Cohen. A letter to Cohen accompanying the initial set of plans presented the design to the congregation as a “promised hosanna” and a “coherent statement of worship.” Beth Sholom Synagogue is one of a group of sixteen Wright buildings singled out in 1959 by the American Institute of Architects and the National Trust for Historic Preservation as his most important “to the nation...which ought to be preserved in their original form.” The building remains essentially unchanged and exhibits an unusually high degree of integrity.

Primary classification

Religious

Secondary classification

Education (EDC)

Designations

U.S. National Register of Historic Places, listed on March 29, 2007 | U.S. National Historic Landmark, designated on March 29, 2007 | Pennsylvania State Historical Marker, designated on September 21, 2008

How to Visit

Open to the public

Location

8231 Old York Road
Elkins Park, PA, 19027

Country

US
More visitation information

Case Study House No. 21

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Designer(s)

Frank Lloyd Wright

Architect

Nationality

American

Other designers

Frank Lloyd Wright

Related chapter

Greater Philadelphia

Commission

December 1953

Completion

20 September 1959

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