Eyes on the Street: Community and Worship on the Upper East Side

Constructed for a German-Jewish Reform congregation, Park Avenue Synagogue, seen here in 1927, the year it was dedicated, was one of the last Moorish-Revival Jewish houses of worship built in the United States.
The Moorish style offered an alternative to the Greco-Roman or Gothic-Revival silhouettes that were often used for churches. It was a style that had been used for synagogues in Germany as early as the 1830s and remained widely popular for Jewish sacred spaces until the First World War.
With its mix of German language, Jewish religion, and Mediterranean accents, the Park Avenue Synagogue was a uniquely American place: when the Synagogue was dedicated in March 1927, Mayor Jimmy Walker, the Episcopal Bishop of New York City William T. Manning, and New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas C. T. Crain were all in attendance.
Congregants, who had originally founded the Synagogue in 1882 in a converted church at 115 East 86th, now had created a dramatic new space for themselves in the city.
The Upper East Side's stunning array of ecclesiastical architecture offers many more instances of immigrant communities announcing their arrival in New York through beautiful houses of worship. In each of these spaces, congregants could come together not only to strengthen the bonds of their communities but also to assert their collective American ambition and success.

Jane Jacobs’ “eyes on the street” approach to community-oriented preservation and planning helped local communities grow and thrive in New York City. To celebrate her legacy, we are focusing on our neighborhood's extraordinarily rich trove of ecclesiastical buildings. Religious institutions were essential to many immigrants’ lives, providing anchors to their new neighborhood while also nurturing links to their homeland. Churches and synagogues were therefore among the first buildings constructed to serve the needs of each community. As community spaces devoted to myriad traditions, these houses of worship support and sustain our neighborhood's varied cultural heritage, while also enlivening our streetscape with stunning architectural diversity. Our Jane’s Walk tour begins at the Park Avenue Synagogue and offers an uplifting stroll through the Upper East Side!