(Former) Beth-el Temple - Fort Worth, TX - This Old Church on Waymarking.com

"Beth-El’s second home was at Broadway and Galveston streets, a $10,000 corner lot on a boulevard with a tree-shaded median. The street was already home to leading Methodist and Baptist congregations. Rabbi G. George Fox was co-chairman of the fund-raising drive with Sam Joseph, a restaurateur who lived across the street from the site in a house with an upstairs ballroom—an indication of the neighborhood’s affluence.

To gather ideas for the new synagogue, the building committee visited synagogues across the state, including El Paso where the Reform Temple boasted a sizable gymnasium. This was the era of “muscular Judaism,” when young Jewish men were encouraged to compete in sports to prove their mettle as Americans. It was also the era of the “synagogue center,” when many young Jewish families filled their social and spiritual needs in one location: their synagogue. Beth-El’s building committee envisioned a synagogue replete with gymnasium, billiards room, rooftop garden for summer meetings, and a large and a small dance hall. Due to lack of funds, the only such features to materialize were a stage, meeting rooms, and an inscription over the Galveston Street entrance that read: Temple Centre.

Local architect John J. Pollard, whose work includes the Forest Park gates and the Fort Worth Club building at Sixth and Main streets (later the Ashton Hotel), designed the 1920 synagogue. The walls were of red brick manufactured in Texas, with adornments sculpted from Hill Country limestone. A quote from Psalm 86 (“Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer”) was chiseled above the entrance. At the previous Temple, the biblical quote adorning the façade was etched in Hebrew. This time, the words on the frieze were in English, reflecting post-war American pride, proximity to mainline churches, and insecurity over incipient anti-Semitism and anti-immigration sentiments. (The frieze, the Ten Commandments tablets, and the menorahs were stripped from the second building and incorporated into the design of Beth-El’s third synagogue.)"

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