BNHA Lloyd Street Synagogue
Affiliations
Baltimore City Landmark
National Register of Historic Places
Interpretive Framework
Gaining Freedom for All: African American Heritage and the Struggle for Equality
Seeking Prosperity on the Chesapeake: Baltimore History from Colonial Times through the 1800s
Shaping a Monumental City: The City’s Growth in the 20th Century
Resource Type
Points of Interest
11 Lloyd St
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
Designed in the Greek Revival style by Robert Cary Long, Jr. and dedicated in 1845, this is the first synagogue erected in Maryland and the third oldest in the country, preceded only by the Touro Synagogue (1763) in Newport, Rhode Island and Beth Elohim (1841) in Charleston, South Carolina. As the population shifted, the congregation dwindled and the building was put to other uses. It had a Lithuanian Roman Catholic congregation from 1889 to 1905. When it was about to be demolished in 1960, the Jewish Historical Society purchased it and restored the synagogue as a museum. Many of the historical features of the building remain, including the wooden pews, women’s balcony, the cast iron fence and the blue and white cuspidors. Ritual baths as well as ovens for baking Passover bread survive in the basement.
The synagogue was designated a city landmark in 1971 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Site summary courtesy of the Baltimore City Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation