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October 9, 2008
Lloyd Street Shul’s $1.2 Million Restoration
Barbara Pash
Associate Editor
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On a recent warm afternoon, the Lloyd Street Synagogue –– Maryland’s oldest Jewish house of worship — was hidden behind scaffolding. It would require a sharp eye and vivid imagination to envision what the crumbling structure at 11 Lloyd St. in East Baltimore will eventually look like.
The synagogue is going back in time — to 1864, the earliest historically accurate date. It is in the midst of a $1.2 million restoration. Federal, state and city grants are funding a project that should be completed by next autumn, although the exterior work may be finished this fall.
Not only does the project have to meet the funders’ grant guidelines, but all work is being reviewed by the Maryland Historical Trust. “This is a landmark building, and one of the most interesting historic buildings in the city,” said Lacy Le Blanc, project manager for the Lloyd Street Synagogue Restoration/Renovation.
Avi Y. Decter, executive director of the adjacent Jewish Museum of Maryland (JMM), pointed to the four classical Greek columns that line the front of the synagogue, built in 1845 by Baltimore Hebrew Congregation.
“They wanted an American synagogue. There are no external signs of Judaism, except for a small mezuzah,” he said.
The 9,000-square-foot synagogue is part of the museum complex that also includes the historic B’nai Israel, built in 1876 and still functioning as a synagogue.
The Lloyd Street Synagogue had a different fate. It served as a house of worship from 1845-1960, but not always Jewish. It was the home of BHC from 1845-1889. From 1889-1904, it was St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. It then became Shomrei Misheres Hakodesh Congregation until 1963, when the Jewish Historical Society of Maryland, precursor to the JMM, bought the building.
“By the late 1950s, Shomrei Misheres had a handful of congregants. There was talk of selling [the building] to a developer who was going to knock it down and turn [the site] into a parking lot,” said Mr. Decter.
The historical society alerted the Jewish community, Mr. Decter said. But as a condition of the sale, regular services could not be held there anymore, even though the main sanctuary has been restored to its original splendor in 1871.
Instead, the building was used for public tours and office space until the JMM headquarters was built in 1998.
Over the decades, the synagogue’s exterior was altered. In 1860, the building was expanded, making it impossible to go back to the original 1845 dimensions, according to Mr. Decter. The paint colors also varied over the years, subject to the different fashions of the eras.
In the end, the JMM chose to return the building’s exterior to its circa-1864 appearance, the date immediately after the synagogue was enlarged to its present size.
“We wanted to go back as far as we could and still be accurate,” said Lee Rosenberg, a JMM board member and chair of the restoration committee.
Mr. Decter said when the exterior work is done, the building will look “brand new and unfamiliar to Baltimoreans. It’s not what they remember.”
The current red brick body will become a warm sandstone color. The white trim will be painted to look like brownstone, and the doors will resemble oak graining. This is the work of Matthew Mosca, a Baltimore-based historical paint finish consultant, to whom the JMM turned to determine the 1864 colors.
Mr. Mosca said the new color scheme is based on a black-and-white photograph the museum found of the building shortly after its expansion. “It was a matter of tonality” in determining the colors from the photograph, said Mr. Mosca, as well as painstakingly scraping layers of old paint to find fragments of the original colors.
Once the exterior work is finished, improvements will be made to the interior. Mr. Decter rattled off a list of core improvements –– a new roof, the installation of a heating/ air conditioning system and new sprinkler, fire alarm and security systems –– that will bring the building up-to-speed but also protect it.
The two main rooms on the lower level will be revamped. In their current state, they are unusable for exhibits and public tours, according to Mr. Decter.
The brick that now covers the original wood floors will be removed. So will the plasterboard that now covers the walls. The windows will be repaired and cleaned. The original hardware will be reinstalled. There will be new restrooms and a handicapped-accessible ramp from the outside.
“It’s a lot of work for a small museum,” said Ms. Le Blanc. “We are investigating every step of the way. We are consulting experts. We want to make sure this building gets the treatment it deserves.”
To Mr. Rosenberg, all of the effort is worth it. “This is the third synagogue in the United States. It has an incredible history. It’s a living monument,” he said. “If we’re a museum, the Lloyd Street Synagogue is a major exhibit in itself.”