Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association Building

Last updated
Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association Building
YMWHA Baltimore.JPG
Baltimore osm-mapnik location map.png
Red pog.svg
USA Maryland location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location305--311 W. Monument St., Baltimore, Maryland
Coordinates 39°17′50″N76°37′15″W / 39.29722°N 76.62083°W / 39.29722; -76.62083 Coordinates: 39°17′50″N76°37′15″W / 39.29722°N 76.62083°W / 39.29722; -76.62083
Arealess than one acre
Built1930 (1930)
Architect Joseph Evans Sperry
NRHP reference No. 85002836 [1]
Added to NRHPNovember 14, 1985

Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association Building, also known as the Jewish Community Center, is a historic building located in central Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is a three-story, flat-roofed, rectangular-shaped Flemish bond brick structure completed in 1930. The exterior features Moorish and Jewish motifs, such as the Star of David. It was designed by Baltimore architect Joseph Evans Sperry. It is now an apartment building. The establishment of the joining YM/YWHA building was a notable example of an attempt to bridge the divide between uptown Baltimore's prosperous German Jews and East Baltimore's impoverished Eastern European and Russian Jews. The association building was constructed midway between uptown and East Baltimore to symbolize this coming together of the two halves of Baltimore's Jewish community. [2]

The Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. [1] It is included in the Baltimore National Heritage Area. [3]

Related Research Articles

A Jewish Community Center or a Jewish Community Centre (JCC) is a general recreational, social, and fraternal organization serving the Jewish community in a number of cities. JCCs promote Jewish culture and heritage through holiday celebrations, Israel-related programming, and Jewish education. However, they are open to everyone in the community.

Mount Vernon, Baltimore Neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Mount Vernon is a neighborhood immediately north of downtown Baltimore, Maryland. Designated a National Historic Landmark District and a city Cultural District, it is one of the city's oldest neighborhoods and originally was home to the city's wealthiest and most fashionable families. The name derives from the Mount Vernon home of George Washington; the original Washington Monument, a massive pillar commenced in 1815 to commemorate the first president of the United States, is the defining feature of the neighborhood.

Bolton Hill, Baltimore Neighborhood of Baltimore in Maryland, United States

Bolton Hill is a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, with 20 blocks of mostly preserved buildings from the late 19th century. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, preserved as a Baltimore City Historic District, and included within the boundaries of Baltimore National Heritage Area. The neighborhood is bounded by North Avenue, Mount Royal Avenue, Cathedral Street, Dolphin Street, and Eutaw Place. Bolton Hill is a largely residential neighborhood with three-story row houses with red brick, white marble steps, and high ceilings. There are also larger more ornate originally single-family houses, many houses of worship, parks, monuments, and a few large apartment buildings. Many significant residents have lived in the neighborhood, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Woodrow Wilson, the Cone sisters, and Florence Rena Sabin.

Chizuk Amuno Congregation

Chizuk Amuno Congregation is a large Jewish house of worship affiliated with Conservative Judaism. It is located in Pikesville, Maryland. The congregation's name comes from the Hebrew "Chizzuq 'Emunah", meaning "strengthening the faith". The word "Amuno" is a variant of the Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation of "'Emunah".

Reservoir Hill, Baltimore United States historic place

Reservoir Hill, also known as Whitelock, is a neighborhood in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is located south of Druid Hill Park, north of Bolton Hill, east of Penn-North, and west of Jones Falls. It is bounded by Druid Park Lake Drive, the Jones Falls Expressway, North Avenue, and McCulloh Street. It is contained in the 21217 ZIP code.

Business and Government Historic District United States historic place

The Business and Government Historic District is a historic district in downtown Baltimore, Maryland, United States, that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. The district comprises the center of Baltimore's municipal government and the eastern portion of Baltimore's commercial district. The major feature of the district is the War Memorial Plaza with City Hall to the west and the War Memorial to the east.

Lloyd Street Synagogue United States historic place

The Lloyd Street Synagogue is an 1845 Greek Revival style synagogue building in Baltimore, Maryland. One of the oldest synagogues in the United States, Lloyd Street was the first synagogue building erected in Maryland and is the third oldest synagogue building still standing in the United States. Lloyd Street is now owned by the Jewish Museum of Maryland and is open to the public as a museum in the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Upper Fells Point Neighborhood of Baltimore in Maryland, United States

Upper Fells Point, also known as "Fells Prospect," is a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Located north of Fells Point, originally the neighborhood was home to Baltimore's dock workers. By the 1880s canneries and factories provided employment to new immigrants, including Irish, Italians and Poles. In the early 1900s these new Americans were joined by Jews, Lithuanians and Greeks. Today its tidy brick rowhouses and tree-lined streets are home to both old-timers and young urban professionals. It is also the heart of Baltimore's growing Latino community and is sometimes called "Spanish Town". Although most Hispanics in the neighborhood are Mexicans, there are significant populations of Salvadorans, Puerto Ricans, Hondurans, Dominicans, Guatemalans, Colombians, and Cubans, as well as many others.

Cathedral Hill Historic District (Baltimore, Maryland) United States historic place

The Cathedral Hill Historic District is an area in Baltimore, Maryland. It lies in the northern part of Downtown just south of Mount Vernon. Roughly bounded by Saratoga Street, Park Avenue, Hamilton Street, and St. Paul Street, these 10 or so blocks contain some of the most significant buildings in Baltimore. The area takes its name from the Basilica of the Assumption which sits in the heart of the district. Despite the number of large religious structures in the area, the district's buildings are primarily commercial in character, with a broad collection of significant commercial structures ranging in date from 1790 to 1940.

Franklin Street Presbyterian Church and Parsonage United States historic place

Franklin Street Presbyterian Church and Parsonage is a historic Presbyterian church located at 100 West Franklin Street at Cathedral Street, northwest corner in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The church is a rectangular Tudor Gothic building dedicated in 1847, with an addition in 1865. The front features two 60 foot flanking octagonal towers are also crenelated and have louvered belfry openings and stained glass Gothic-arched windows. The manse / parsonage at the north end has similar matching walls of brick, heavy Tudor-Gothic window hoods, and battlements atop the roof and was built in 1857.

Shaarei Tfiloh Synagogue United States historic place

Shaarei Tfiloh Synagogue is a historic synagogue located on Druid Hill Park at Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The synagogue is significant due to its association with the immigration of Russian and Eastern European Jews to Baltimore. It is a rock-faced stone structure with large arched stained glass windows and a pedimented roofline surmounted by a central copper-clad dome. Its name means Gates of Prayer in Hebrew.

Eutaw–Madison Apartment House Historic District United States historic place

Eutaw–Madison Apartment House Historic District is a national historic district in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It consists of a group of three multi-story apartment buildings built in the first quarter of the 20th century. They are: The Esplanade, a 9-story apartment building built in 1912; the Emersonian, an 8-story building constructed in 1915 of stuccoed masonry; and Temple Gardens, a 14-story building built in 1926. The district is significant in part because of its association with Baltimore's Jewish community. During the 19th century, the Eutaw–Madison neighborhood became a center for the Jewish community in Baltimore. By the 1920s the neighborhood had been established firmly as a neighborhood of middle and upper-class Jews, many of whom were professionals and merchants.

Edlavitch Jewish Community Center of Washington, D.C.

The Edlavitch Jewish Community Center of Washington, D.C. is a Jewish Community Center located in the historic district of Dupont Circle. It serves the Washington, D.C. area through religious, cultural, educational, social, and sport center programs open to the public, although many programs are strongly linked to Jewish culture, both in the United States and in Israel. It is part of the JCC Association (JCCA), the umbrella organization for the Jewish Community Center movement, which includes more than 350 JCCs, YM-YWHAs, and camp sites in the U.S. and Canada, in addition to 180 local JCCs in the Former Soviet Union, 70 in Latin America, 50 in Europe, and close to 500 smaller centers in Israel.

Hebrew Orphan Asylum (Baltimore, Maryland) United States historic place

The Hebrew Orphan Asylum is an historic institutional orphanage and former hospital building located in the Mosher neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It has also been known as West Baltimore General Hospital, Lutheran Hospital of Maryland and is currently being redeveloped by Coppin Heights Community Development Corporation to be a Center for Healthcare & Healthy Living.

Built in 1875, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in Baltimore, Maryland replaced the old Calverton Mansion when a fire destroyed the mansion in 1874. The Hebrew Orphan Asylum, which started in 1872 in the Calverton Mansion depended on donations from people within the Baltimore Jewish community, including the wealthy German Jewish community that had settled within the city. The history of the asylum follows the history of the Jewish community in Baltimore, which increased rapidly with immigration from Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building transitioned to serve as the West Baltimore General Hospital from 1923 through 1950 and finally the Lutheran Hospital of Maryland from 1950 to 1989. While associated structures associated with the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, the West Baltimore General Hospital, and the Lutheran Hospital of Maryland were demolished in 2009, the original four-story brick Romanesque structure still stands.

East Monument Historic District United States historic place

East Monument Historic District or Little Bohemia, is a national historic district in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a large residential area with a commercial strip along East Monument Street. It comprises approximately 88 whole and partial blocks. The residential area is composed primarily of rowhomes that were developed, beginning in the 1870s, as housing for Baltimore's growing Bohemian (Czech) immigrant community. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the neighborhood was the heart of the Bohemian community in Baltimore. The Bohemian National Parish of the Roman Catholic Church, St. Wenceslaus, is located in the neighborhood. The historic district includes all of McElderry Park and Milton-Montford, most of Middle East and Madison-Eastend, and parts of Ellwood Park.

The history of Czechs in Baltimore dates back to the mid-19th century. Thousands of Czechs immigrated to East Baltimore during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, becoming an important component of Baltimore's ethnic and cultural heritage. The Czech community has founded a number of cultural institutions to preserve the city's Czech heritage, including a Roman Catholic church, a heritage association, a gymnastics association, an annual festival, a language school, and a cemetery. During the height of the Czech community in the late 19th century and early 20th century, Baltimore was home to 12,000 to 15,000 people of Czech birth or heritage. The population began to decline during the mid-to-late 20th century, as the community assimilated and aged, while many Czech Americans moved to the suburbs of Baltimore. By the 1980s and early 1990s, the former Czech community in East Baltimore had been almost entirely dispersed, though a few remnants of the city's Czech cultural legacy still remain.

Hollins–Roundhouse Historic District United States historic place

Hollins–Roundhouse Historic District is a national historic district in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is a primarily residential area characterized by 19th century rowhouses. The neighborhood is historically significant due to its association with the development of rail transportation in Maryland. Additional historical significance comes from the neighborhood's association with ethnic immigration to Baltimore. During the 1840s and 1850s the area was a center of settlement for Baltimore's German and Irish communities, many of whom immigrated to the United States to work in the rail industry. Later, from the 1880s to the 1920s, the neighborhood became established as the center of Baltimore's Lithuanian immigrant community. Because of the large Lithuanian population in the area north of Hollins Street, the area became known as Little Lithuania. A few remnants of the neighborhood's Lithuanian heritage still remain, such as Lithuanian Hall located on Hollins Street.

History of the Jews in Baltimore Aspect of history

Few Jews arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, in its early years. As an immigrant port of entry and border town between North and South and as a manufacturing center in its own right, Baltimore has been well-positioned to reflect developments in American Jewish life. Yet, the Jewish community of Baltimore has maintained its own distinctive character as well.

History of African Americans in Baltimore

The history of African Americans in Baltimore dates back to the 17th century when the first African slaves were being brought to the Province of Maryland. Majority white for most of its history, Baltimore transitioned to having a black majority in the 1970s. As of the 2010 Census, African Americans are the majority population of Baltimore at 63% of the population. As a majority black city for the last several decades with the 5th largest population of African Americans of any city in the United States, African Americans have had an enormous impact on the culture, dialect, history, politics, and music of the city. Unlike many other Northern cities whose African-American populations first became well-established during the Great Migration, Baltimore has a deeply rooted African-American heritage, being home to the largest population of free black people half a century before the Emancipation Proclamation. The migrations of Southern and Appalachian African Americans between 1910 and 1970 brought thousands of African Americans to Baltimore, transforming the city into the second northernmost majority-black city in the United States after Detroit. The city's African-American community is centered in West Baltimore and East Baltimore. The distribution of African Americans on both the West and the East sides of Baltimore is sometimes called "The Black Butterfly", while the distribution of white Americans in Central and Southeast Baltimore is called "The White L."

The city of Cumberland, Maryland is home to a small and declining but historically significant Jewish community. The city is home to a single synagogue, B'er Chayim Temple, one of the oldest synagogues in the United States. Cumberland has had a Jewish presence since the early 1800s. The community was largest prior to the 1960s, but has declined in number over the decades. Historically, the Jewish community in Cumberland maintained several synagogues, a Jewish cemetery, and a Hebrew school. By 2019, Cumberland's Jewish community had its lowest population point since the early 1900s.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. Steven Weissenthal (May 1985). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association Building" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  3. "Baltimore National Heritage Area Map" (PDF). City of Baltimore. Retrieved March 11, 2012.