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Plum Street Temple
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The Isaac M. Wise Temple
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| Location: | Cincinnati, Ohio |
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| Built: | 1865 |
| Architect: | James Keys Wilson |
| Architectural style: | Exotic Revival, Other |
| Governing body: | Private |
| NRHP Reference#: | 72001021 [1] |
| Added to NRHP: | December 27, 1972 |
The Isaac M. Wise Temple (formerly the Plum Street Temple) is the historic synagogue erected for Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise. Rabbi Wise was the founder of American Reform Judaism. The temple building was designed by prominent Cincinnati architect James Keys Wilson.
The temple is located at 720 Plum Street in Cincinnati, Ohio and was built by members of the Lodge Street Synagogue. The temple and was dedicated on Friday, August 24, 1866 and is among the oldest synagogue buildings still standing in the United States.[2] As a daily paper wrote at the time, “Cincinnati never before had seen so much grandeur pressed into so small a space.” Although originally budgeted at a cost of US$35,000 for the land, and $55,000 for the building, the total cost of the enterprise exceeded $264,000 largely due to post Civil War inflation.. This is the equivalent of approximately $3,654,000 in 2011 dollars. With a membership of approximately 220 families in 1865 this represents an investment of approximately $16,600 in 2011 dollars per family in the new structure.
The temple is across Plum Street from the historic Saint Peter In Chains Cathedral and next to the site of the former St. Paul Episcopal Cathedral, which was torn down in 1937.
In 1972, the Plum Street Temple was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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This building was constructed by James Keys Wilson with a 19th century Germanic architectural style that blended the Neo-Byzantine architecture and Moorish Revival style derived from the architecture of Moorish Spain. The style of the synagogue, including the tripartite, twin-domed facade, was copied from the Leopoldstädter Tempel, built in Vienna, Austria, in 1853. Many American congregations built Moorish Revival synagogues with facades inspired by Plum Street and Leopoldstädter.
The temple has a tripartite facade, rose window and a basilica style arch, similar to a Gothic Cathedral, but its Islamic influences are visible in its minarets and other details.[3]
Plum Street is notable for having been the first of many American Moorish Revival synagogues.[4] All examples of similar architecture in Germany were destroyed by Hitler,[5] although many examples survive in other parts of Europe.
In 1840, a group of German Jewish immigrants in Cincinnati organized themselves into a separate congregation, K.K. B'nai Yeshurun, breaking away from the existing congregation, K. K. Bene Israel. Their first place of worship was in a home on Third Street, between Sycamore and Broadway. In 1841 the congregation purchased and renovated for use as a house of worship a Federal-style, brick, four-story row house on Lodge Street.[6]
The congregation build its first synagogue in 1848 on Lodge Street in the gothic Revival style.[7] The Lodge Street Synagogue was dedicated on September 22, 1848 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It can be seen here [8]
The congregation voted in 1853 to engage Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise as its spiritual leader, this congregation built the Plum Street Temple beginning in 1865. Prior to the Civil War, the 200 families of K. K. B'nai Yeshurun (Isaac M. Wise Temple) envisioned a magnificent building to house their growing twenty year old congregation that had already gained a national prominence because of their rabbi, Isaac Mayer Wise. With his energy and vision, the congregation and Cincinnati were fast becoming a center of national Jewish life. Plum Street Temple was dedicated on Friday, August 24, 1866. The original ledger book with all the entries of specific costs entailed in the construction of Plum Street Temple has recently been found.
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![[2]](http://www.cincinnatimemory.org/gsdl/collect/greaterc/archives/HASH3cd2/1e77888c.dir/ocp000553slide.jpg){kind=link}
