Download Annual Report - The New York Landmarks Conservancy

The New York Landmarks Conservancy’s Sacred Sites program is one of thefew in the country dedicated to the preservation of historic religious properties.Since its inception in 1986, the program has awarded over 1100 grants,totaling over $6.4 million, to nearly 700 religious institutions throughout NewYork State. In addition to grants, the program assists dozens of landmarkqualityreligious institutions each year with hands-on technical assistance,referrals, workshops on the maintenance and repair of religious propertiesand associated financial issues. The Conservancy also distributes CommonBond, the Conservancy’s technical journal for historic religious properties, to6000 subscribers throughout the United States.The Sacred Sites program celebrated some remarkable milestones in 2009,despite the fiscal climate.Altogether, via three grant programs, the Conservancy awarded 38 grantstotaling $523,500, which included a program record $400,000 in Robert W.Wilson-Sacred Sites Challenge grants to 13 historic churches throughoutNew York State. This fall, Mr. Wilson agreed to extend challenge grant fundingfor historic churches for five additional years, through 2014, at $300,000per year.Ten Historic Synagogues Nominatedto the National Register of Historic PlacesWith underwriting from a prestigious NYSCA funded, Preservation Leagueadministered“Preserve New York” grant, and additional funding from theConservancy, Conservancy staff worked closely with writer and architecturalhistorian Anthony W. Robins to place 10 historic synagogues in Queens andBrooklyn on the National Register of Historic Places. The group includesone former synagogue, the 1909-1910 Shaari Zedek, in Bedford Stuyvesant,Brooklyn, which was outgrown by its original congregation within tenyears of construction, and has served as the home of St. Leonard’s Churchsince 1944. The other nine synagogues range in style and size from Moorishto Classical Revival to Moderne, from the small, vernacular Kol Israel inCrown Heights, to the monumental and lavishly decorated sanctuary volumeof Temple Beth-El of Borough Park (now Young Israel-Beth El), to the sprawlingsynagogue centers—synagogues incorporating social, educational, andrecreational facilities—of Ocean Parkway and Rego Park.The Conservancy solicited formal owner consent from each institution, andappointments were made to visit each site, take up-to-date photographs, reviewon-site archives, and interview long-time members and staff. Buildingon the Conservancy’s 2007-2008 synagogue surveys of Brooklyn and Queens,in-depth nominations were researched, written, and submitted by Mr. Robinsto the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservationthroughout the year. Together, the nominations illuminate the socialhistory and aspirations of the first and second-generation American-Jewishcommunities of Brooklyn and Queens from the 1910s through the 1950s.Collectively, the ten synagogues were profiled in “Unsung Synagogues ofNew York City,” a special 2009 issue of Common Bond, documenting andcelebrating the variety and quality of New York City synagogue architecturein the first half of the 20th century. The issue also includes highlights fromthe Bronx and Staten Island synagogue surveys.In June, Sacred Sites Director Ann-Isabel Friedman made a presentation onthe synagogue surveys and nominations to the Brooklyn Jewish HistoricalSociety, and joined Anthony Robins to speak about the project at an eventhosted by the Jewish National Fund. In December, Queens Borough PresidentHelen Marshall hosted a press conference commemorating the NationalRegister nomination of the three Queens synagogues: the Astoria Center11