Temple Freda | |
 Temple Freda in 2012 | |
  Temple Freda  Temple Freda | |
| Location | 205 Parker St., Bryan, Texas |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 30°40′20″N96°22′29″W / 30.67222°N 96.37472°W |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1912 |
| Architect | Green & Finger Company |
| Architectural style | Classical Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 83003128 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | September 22, 1983 |
Temple Freda, built in 1912, is a synagogue in Bryan, Texas. [2] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 22, 1983.
Temple Freda, a part of Brazos County, Texas history, is one of the three oldest religious buildings still in use in Bryan, along with St. Andrew's Episcopal Church and St. Anthony's Catholic Church. [3] Temple Freda is named for Ethel Freda Kaczer (1860–1912). Her husband, Benjamin Kaczer (1850–1938), was president of the community when the synagogue was built. [3] The temple is unique for a Jewish place of worship in that it is named after a woman. [2] [4]
Since 1982, Texas A&M University's Center of Heritage Conservation has focused on the history of Temple Freda as one of its historical projects. The temple structure is built in Greek Revival style [5] and also exhibits Classical Revival style with Beaux-Arts architecture elements. [2]
The building began to decline after World War II when worshippers began migrating over to the newer student-oriented Hillel synagogue in College Station. [6] In 2013, a group of citizens from Bryan, Texas joined together to restore the deteriorating building. The City of Bryan became acting custodian over the restoration project. [6] It was determined that after restoration, the building would not be used as a religious facility rather it will be used for community activities such as weddings, small receptions, educational activities and the like. [6]
In 1958, Texas A&M Hillel opened up a building in College Station, Texas. During this period, some members of Temple Freda in Bryan, Texas left to attend services at the Hillel Foundation building in College Station. Presently, Temple Freda's Torah is under the care of Texas A&M Hillel. [7]
In 1968 Congregation Beth Shalom, Bryan TX was formed to serve the Jewish community of the Brazos Valley. It included many former members of Temple Freda. Presently Temple Freda's Cemetery is under the care of Congregation Beth Shalom.
Since 1982, Texas A&M University's "Center of Heritage Conservation" has focused on the history of Temple Freda as one of its historical projects. The temple structure is built in Greek Revival style [5] and also exhibits Classical Revival style with Beaux-Arts architecture elements. [2] Temple Freda is associated with the Jewish cemetery "Temple Freda Cemetery" [8] and is also a part of the National Register of Historic Places of Texas. [9]
Egyptian Revival is an architectural style that uses the motifs and imagery of ancient Egypt. It is attributed generally to the public awareness of ancient Egyptian monuments generated by Napoleon's conquest of Egypt and Admiral Nelson's defeat of the French Navy at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. Napoleon took a scientific expedition with him to Egypt. Publication of the expedition's work, the Description de l'Égypte, began in 1809 and was published as a series through 1826. The size and monumentality of the façades discovered during his adventure cemented the hold of Egyptian aesthetics on the Parisian elite. However, works of art and architecture in the Egyptian style had been made or built occasionally on the European continent since the time of the Renaissance.
Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th century, part of a widening vocabulary of articulated decorative ornament drawn from historical sources beyond familiar classical and Gothic modes. Neo-Moorish architecture drew on elements from classic Moorish architecture and, as a result, from the wider Islamic architecture.
Rodef Shalom Congregation is an historic Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue located at 4905 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The landmark building was designed by architect Henry Hornbostel and completed in the Beaux-Arts style.
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Temple Ohabei Shalom Cemetery is a historic Jewish cemetery located at 147 Wordsworth Street in East Boston, Massachusetts.
Jewish Texans have been a part of the history of Texas since the first European explorers arrived in the region in the 16th century. In 1990, there were around 108,000 adherents to Judaism in Texas. More recent estimates place the number at around 120,000.
Jewish settlement in Brazos County, Texas, began in 1865. This history includes the present Jewish communities and individuals of Brazos County and Texas A&M University.
Temple Sinai, also known as Congregation Sinai, whose official name is the Sumter Society of Israelites, is an historic Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 11-13 Church Street, on the corner of West Hampton Avenue, in Sumter, South Carolina, in the United States.
Beth Israel Synagogue is a historic former Jewish synagogue building at 238 Columbia Street in Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. Built in 1901, it was the first and principal synagogue to serve the East Cambridge area, and is a fine local example of Romanesque Revival architecture. Now converted into residential condominiums, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center at Temple–Tifereth Israel is a 1200-seat historic arts and religious venue on the campus of Case Western Reserve University located on the Hough and University Circle border at Silver Park in Cleveland, Ohio.
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Temple Ohabei Shalom is a Reform Jewish synagogue located at 1187 Beacon Street, in Brookline, suburban Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Organized in 1842 with membership mainly of German Jews, it is the oldest Jewish congregation in Massachusetts and the third oldest in New England, following congregations in Newport and New Haven.
Percival Goodman was an American urban theorist and architect who designed more than 50 synagogues between 1948 and 1983. He has been called the "leading theorist" of modern synagogue design, and "the most prolific architect in Jewish history."
Congregation Adath Israel Brith Sholom is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue located at 5101 US Hwy 42, in Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States.
The Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center, formerly known as the Jewish History Museum, and the Jewish Heritage Center of the Southwest, is a museum housed in a historic synagogue building in Tucson, Arizona. The museum's building, which housed the first synagogue in the Arizona Territory, is the oldest synagogue building in the state.
James Keys Wilson was a prominent architect in Cincinnati, Ohio. He studied with Charles A. Mountain in Philadelphia and then Martin E. Thompson and James Renwick in New York, interning at Renwick's firm. Wilson worked with William Walter at the Walter and Wilson firm, before establishing his own practice in Cincinnati. He became the most noted architect in the city. His Old Main Building for Bethany College and Plum Street Temple buildings are National Historic Landmarks. His work includes many Gothic Revival architecture buildings, while the synagogue is considered Moorish Revival and Byzantine Architecture.
Temple B'Nai Israel is a former Jewish synagogue at 265 West Main Street in New Britain, Connecticut. It is a Beaux Arts building originally constructed as a Masonic Hall in 1929, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995 under the name "Masonic Temple".
Emile Weil was a noted architect of New Orleans, Louisiana.
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Media related to Temple Freda at Wikimedia Commons
