A starry sanctuary with horseshoe-like arches, slender columns and an abstract blue east window; portraits occupy the side aisles.
The Eldridge Street Synagogue opened in 1887 at 12 Eldridge Street, the first synagogue in America purpose built by immigrants from Eastern Europe. After the 1924 immigration quotas the congregation shrank, moved into the lower chapel in the 1940s and left the main sanctuary to decay. It was rediscovered in 1986, named a National Historic Landmark in 1996, and restored by December 2007. A stained glass window by Kiki Smith and Deborah Gans was added in 2010.
Source · Museum at Eldridge Street ↗
1887 sanctuary; upper galleries; slender columns; blue circular east window; stenciled star field. Original abstract glazing, not a copy of the contemporary artwork. Mood: light through blue glass. Everything is procedural geometry with painted surfaces; nothing is a scan or a photograph. The room is an interpretation, and it hangs the New Yorkers the census recorded at this place first.