Temple Beth Zion - Buffalo, NY
Posted by: 
Rayman
N 42° 54.046 W 078° 52.403
17T E 673618 N 4751989
The former Temple Beth Zion building was once home to the largest Jewish congregation in Western New York, and is also one of the oldest in the country.
Waymark Code: WM1HF9
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 05/11/2007
Views: 44
The following excerpt is from
New York: A Guide to the Empire State from the Buffalo "Points of Interest" section.
TEMPLE BETH ZION, Reform, 599 Delaware Ave., belonging to a congregation organized in 1847, was dedicated in 1890. Designed in the Byzantine-Romanesque style, the temple is square in plan, with towers at the front corners and a lunette treatement above the main entrance. A large, copper-covered dome over the auditorium rests on an octagonal drum and rises to a small lantern cupola. The temple was designed by Edward A. Kent of Buffalo, the school and residence at the rear and side by Dietel and Wade.
On October 4, 1961, a fire within the temple destroyed the building. Within forty minutes of its discovery, the fire destroyed the central dome, causing it to collapse and made the building a complete loss. The congregation was without a home for nearly six years before their
new home was built further north on Delaware Ave. In 2006, a new building was built on the site and is currently the home of the Buffalo Clinical Research Center.