Only One Synagogue Was Designed By Frank Lloyd Wright – It Is Now Open To Visitors For The First Time

Described as a symbolic Mount Sinai made of concrete, steel and glass, it never received the attention of Fallingwater or the Guggenheim Museum.

Public can tour Frank Lloyd Wright-designed synagogue
Did you hear the one about the rabbi and the architect? Few people have. Which is why the members of Beth Sholom — who worship in...
By KATHY MATHESON • AP / Seattle Times

Did you hear the one about the rabbi and the architect?

Few people have. Which is why the members of Beth Sholom — who worship in the only synagogue designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright — are stepping forward to tell the story of how their landmark spiritual home in Pennsylvania was built.

Described as a symbolic Mount Sinai made of concrete, steel and glass, the synagogue somehow never received the attention of Wright designs such as Fallingwater, the iconic house in Pennsylvania, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. But new public visiting hours might change that.

"It should be better known," said Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for The New Yorker magazine. "The space itself is just magnificent. It's exhilarating. Everything just soars."

The synagogue in Elkins Park, near Philadelphia, marked its 50th anniversary this year by establishing a visitors center now open three days a week. Until last month, appointments were required, although walk-ins sometimes got impromptu tours if a guide happened to be in the building.

From the outside, the pyramidlike roof rises more than 100 feet above the sanctuary. The "shingles" are panels of corrugated wire glass and fiberglass that filter natural light into the building during the day. At night, the illuminated structure is an ethereal, almost otherworldly sight for motorists driving by.

The six-sided sanctuary represents the cupped hands of God. A multicolored Plexiglas chandelier — Wright called it a "light basket" — is suspended above the nearly 1,100 seats, most of them original.

Wright also designed the eternal light over the ark, where the Torah scrolls are kept.

"The Synagogue lives and breathes; it moves with quiet grace and charm; its lights and shadows continually change with the coming of the sun and the passing of a cloud," wrote Mortimer J. Cohen, the rabbi who commissioned the building.

Cohen sought out Wright in 1953 as members of his North Philadelphia congregation increasingly joined the white exodus from the city and began settling around the leafy suburb of Elkins Park.

The unique synagogue design emerged from a combination of Cohen's sketches and a long-shelved Wright design for a "steel cathedral." But construction and financial problems — mostly stemming from the unorthodox design — plagued the project, at times driving Cohen to despair.

It was finally finished in 1959, a few months after Wright's death at age 91. Cohen died in 1972.

The Conservative congregation never sought to promote the building, perhaps because it is an active house of worship and not a museum, said past President Herbert Sachs. But a few years ago, as the synagogue sought National Historic Landmark status, Sachs began to grasp the growing need for regular upkeep and realized the congregation might one day need public help.

Virtual Tour.

Comments

[dr. dave]

Then of course the Bauhaus sect broke off from the congregation proclaiming less is more and holding services in an empty warehouse.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Shalom, Frank Lloyd Wright (apologies: Paul Simon)

Shalom, Frank Lloyd Wright
I can't believe your niggun is gone so soon
I barely learned the tune
So soon
So soon

I'll remember Frank Lloyd Wright
All of the nights we'd study mishnah till dawn
I never learned so long
So long
So long

Architects may come and
Architects may go and
Never change your opinion of Jews
When I run dry
I stop a while and drink Mountain Dew

Architects may come and
Architects may go and
Never change your opinion of Jews

Shalom, Frank Lloyd Wright
All of the nights we'd daven at chatzot
I never sown my wild oats
Shalom,
Shalom

[danny]

I have to check this place out. Looks very cool.

I like to go camping near Taliesan.

[jesselivermore]

I grew up around the corner, had been there many times in childhood. Always thought it was meant to invoke Noah's Ark. Just look at it - It's an Ark! It is very cool tho -= by far the most interesting looking synagogue I have ever been in.

[Yakira]

Wow, that is one beautiful synagogue!