Temple Beth El

About this Property

#Last Tenant

The congregation of this Roman-Classical-designed early-20th-century synagogue permanently vacated in 2006. Since then, it has made the Providence Presentation Society’s Ten Most Endangered Properties List almost very year — 2010, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2024. After almost 20 years of neglect, the building is in terrible condition, with almost nothing left of the inside.

A few initiatives to revive and repurpose the building have tried and failed. In 2011, a vandal broke in and stole much of the copper roofing, leading to major water damage. Shortly after, Adam Bush and Sam Seidel — of College Unbound and the Business Innovation Factory, respectively — became interested in the property.¹ They coordinated art projects and tours to generate developer interest and funding for the space.

In 2013, the RI Jewish Historical Association and Rhode Island Historical Society held a tour with oral histories in the former synagogue.² And then students from Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design installed landscaping and covered boarded-up windows with artwork. A year later, a month-long art exhibit took place inside.³

And in 2014, developer Joe Triangelo and Rabbi Barry Dolinger set out plans to spend $2.17M on renovations to turn the space into an indoor Chelsea Market, utlizing the industrial kitchen already in place for local food entrepreneurs. To their credit, they did not want to subdivide the large interior into smaller spaces. Triangelo and his company, Trico Development, are locally known for the renovations of Newport’s Belcourt Castle after Carolyn Rafaelian’s purchase.

“The Hebrew word for synagogue is ‘beit knesset,’ which means a gathering place,” [Adam Bush] said. “The challenge is to reimagine this gathering place for 350 people in South Providence.”⁴

The building got a temporary roof and underwent some interior renovations, but that roof is now collapsing and causing new damage. Triangelo sold the building to Carolyn Rafaelian’s trust in 2015, about a year later.⁵ Ms. Rafaelian believed in finding the right owner for the property, but did almost nothing with it for almost a decade.

#Current Events

The building has just been donated to the Center for Southeast Asians, now located on Elmwood Avenue. They have plans for a major renovation totaling an estimated $16M over the next five years. See In the News for more reporting.

#History

From the National Register Nomination Form, Robert O. Jones and Patricia A. Raub, 1988

Temple Beth-El, erected in 1910-11 (Banning & Thornton, architects), is a two-story Classical Revival building of Roman brick and terra cotta, set on a high basement of rusticated brick with concrete underpinnings. It stands on Broad Street, one of the main radials leading southward from downtown Providence, at the corner of Glenham Street, on a lot bounded by an iron pale fence. The building is set well back from the property line on the front and south side, which emphasizes its presence in a mixed-use commercial and residential neighborhood in which most buildings are constructed close to or right on the sidewalk. A low two-story, flat-roof brick and concrete block addition built in 1958 is attached to the north side of the synagogue, and is dwarfed by the earlier structure.

The synagogue is a contained rectilinear block of symmetrical design. On the front a broad flight of steps leads up to a central portico with a pair of monumental Corinthian columns in antis. The columns and antae, the latter treated as piers, support an entablature and triangular pediment. The portico shelters three double-door entrances with architrave trim composed of alternating projecting and recessed blocks bordered by moldings. This same trim is used between the basement and first story to form a stringcourse, which steps up around the tops of two basement entrances flanking the portico. The entablature of the portico continues around the sides and rear of the building and is topped by a parapet which partially hides the building’s hip roof from view. On the sides, shallow central pavilions, defined by broad pilasters and triangular pediments, are flanked by pairs of window bays, articulated in vertical groups with molded copper Star of David panels between the first-and second-story windows. The pavilions each contain narrow two-story windows framed by thin pilasters. The entablature cornice and raking cornices of the pediments are trimmed with modillions. The cornice moldings and coping of the parapet are of copper with a verdigris patina. The portico entablature has a Hebrew inscription in raised lettering in the frieze, and the tympana of the pediments contain Stars of David in blue and yellow glazed tile. […]

[In 1954] the Orthodox Congregation Shaare Zedek acquired the synagogue from the Reform Congregation Sons of Israel and David […]. At the rear, in addition to the stair and entrance hall in the southeast corner, were three rooms, originally used as a classroom, a library, and a kitchen, respectively. In the mid-1950s, all three back rooms were converted to food-preparation use by the present occupants. The library became the meat kitchen, one of the two smaller rooms became the dairy kitchen, and the third room became a food storage space. The vestry was once divided with movable partitions into four separate classrooms for the religious school which met on Sunday mornings. These dividers were removed when Congregation Shaare Zedek took possession of the building.

The two-story, flat-roof, concrete block and brick addition attached to the north side of the synagogue was built by Congregation Shaare Zedek in 1958. Its asymmetrical facade is aligned with the front of the synagogue portico. The addition has a side-hall entrance sheltered by a plain portico topped with steel industrial railings; irregular fenestration of plate- glass, sash, and awning windows; and a cast-stone frieze with relief zig-zag ornamentation recalling Art Deco work of the 1920s. The addition was designed by Harry Marshak (d.ca1973), who designed a number of houses on Providence’s East Side during a long career, as well as the Congregation Sons of Jacob Synagogue (begun 1905, completed 1920), 24 Douglas Avenue, and Temple Beth Israel (1921, altered 1960s) , 155 Niagara Street. Originally used as a mikveh (ritual bath) and a classroom building, the structure has been vacant for the past two decades and is now used only occasionally to provide accommodations for visiting rabbis and cantors in two upper-story rooms remodeled as guest rooms. […]

In 1910, the congregation’s building committee, headed by Sigmund J. Lederer, a Providence jewelry manufacturer, selected the local firm of Banning & Thornton as architects for the new building. The choice of Banning & Thornton may have been influenced by Joseph and Leon Samuels, members of the congregation, who had hired the firm to plan an addition to the Outlet Building in 1903. Though Banning & Thornton was one of Providence’s less prominent and less prestigious architectural firms, the partners, both individually and together, did execute a number of important commissions. Edwin T. Banning designed the Roger Williams Park Casino (1896-7) in Providence; D. Howard Thornton worked on St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (1901) in Pawtucket and the State Sanitorium (1905) at Wallum Lake in Burriville; and the firm carried out the 1906 remodeling of the Old State House in Providence (listed on the National Register) for the Sixth District Court.

The new Temple Beth-El reflected stylistic trends for synagogues as they were evolving at the turn of the twentieth century. The selection of a Roman Classical design was typical for this period. At the time there was a reaction against the eclecticism of the nineteenth century which had led to the construction of Gothic Revival, Romanesque, and Moorish synagogues. One scholar has suggested that as Jews became more assimilated in American society, they wanted synagogues that were more in line with “the mainstream of American architecture” [Wischner]. […]

The Broad Street building served its congregation well for over four decades, although as early as 1926, Temple Beth-El began to consider building an addition to accommodate its expanding Sunday school and, in 1931, authorized a building committee to consider the location and construction of a new synagogue. The Depression may have contributed to postponement of this project. When the Congregation Sons of Israel and David began to discuss construction again in the late 1940s, they decided to build a new temple rather than to enlarge the old one. This decision was no doubt influenced by the fact that most of the congregation no longer lived in the immediate vicinity of the Broad Street temple. By this time, many had moved to the East Side, which had become the neighborhood of choice for prosperous Providence families, or out to the suburbs. […]

In 1954, the Congregation Sons of Israel and David dedicated a new temple on Orchard Avenue on Providence’s East Side. Four small South Providence congregations, Linnath Hazedek (inc. 1896), South Providence Hebrew (inc. 1901), Machzekas Hadas (inc. 1907), and Bais Isrual Anshoy Hestreich (inc. 1907), later joined by a fifth, took possession of the Broad Street synagogue, renaming themselves Congregation Shaare Zedek. […]

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Additional Links

• “Old Temple Beth El” Guide to Providence Architecture, Providence Preservation Society.

#In the News

Historic R.I. temple donated by Alex and Ani founder to become housing, community center

Carolyn Rafaelian gifts former Jewish temple in Providence to Center for Southeast Asians

by Alexa Gagosz
Boston Globe | November 8, 2024 (abridged)

Ting Barnard was just a year old when her father carried her on his back as he swam through the icy water of the Mekong River. Emerging on the shores of Thailand, he waved down a helicopter that would help them continue their journey to the United States. When they landed as Laotian refugees in 1981, they had nothing but the clothes on their backs. […]

Today, Barnard is a business owner and philanthropist who serves on the board of the Papitto Opportunity Connection, the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra & Music School, and several other organizations. On Thursday, she served as the master of ceremonies of Carolyn Rafaelian’s long-awaited donation of the former Jewish temple property to the Center for Southeast Asians.

The nonprofit plans to embark on a $16 million renovation project, which could take an estimated five years, to transform it into a modern community center with a senior adult day care, transitional housing with at least 11 units and communal space, and headquarters for some of the center’s programming.

Barnard, who also serves on the board of the center, said the temple will become a space “for families like mine [who have] hope for the future. This day is very monumental.” […]

Rafaelian, the founder and previous executive of the Alex and Ani jewelry company, first purchased the property in 2015. Rafaelian […] had previously attempted to find a use for the temple before her plans to donate the property to College Unbound — another nonprofit — fell through.

After the ceremony on Thursday, Rafaelian told the Globe “Patience has paid off.”

“The right alliance happened,” said Rafaelian […]. “This place will now be born again in the most magnificent way.” […]

Rhode Island Speaker of the House K. Joseph Shekarchi said Rafaelian’s “legacy of charitable giving is legendary.”

Channavy Chhay, the executive director of the Center for Southeast Asians, said the center will build a commercial kitchen inside the temple so community members can prepare culturally appropriate dishes. Once opened, she said, every program offered at the community center will be free.

The restoration project also will be complicated, Chhay told the Globe.

“It’s not safe to go inside,” she said. “The wood is fractured. The roof has collapsed. And there’s stained glass.” […]

Chhay said the center received $500,000 from the National Park Service and requested $7.25 million in appropriations from US Senator Jack Reed’s office for 2025. The center plans to launch a fund-raising campaign to secure additional financing.

“If we get that $7 million, we can start this right away,” she said. “My goal is to open in five years. It all comes down to funding and support from people who also don’t want this building to go away. So I’m going to stick my head out really far for this.

“So we cannot cut corners,” added Chhay. “This is going to be a transformation, this will be a home.”

— Captured 24 November 2024 from https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/11/08/metro/ri-temple-community-center-southeast-asians/