The Old Synagogue

By Michael Bridgeman

Gates of Heaven Synagogue is one of the smaller landmark buildings [a] in Madison. It is also one of the most visible given its location at North Gorham and East Butler Streets, a site to which it was moved in July of 1971. For more than 100 years, the synagogue stood on West Washington Avenue. This is the story of the Old Synagogue in its original location.

 

Gates of Heaven as it now appears [1]

 

Madison’s Jewish history dates to about 1850. Within a few years there were 17 Jewish families in the city, most having immigrated from German-speaking areas of Europe. They formed a congregation which eventually took the name Shaarei Shamayim [b], or Gates of Heaven in English. In 1863 they engaged August Kutzbock [c], a leading architect in the city, to design a synagogue for the congregation. The building is diminutive, yet presents a dignified façade in locally quarried sandstone, a favorite material for Kutzbock and other early Madison architects. Stylistically, it is generally classified as Romanesque Revival or sometimes Victorian Eclectic. Gates of Heaven is among the oldest synagogue buildings in the country. [d]

The synagogue in 1864 [2]

Soon after it was erected, Gates of Heaven was depicted by Louis Kurz for a vignette he included in a lithograph of “the capital of Wisconsin.” It is on the left in the illustration; on the right is the First Congregational Chapel which had been built a few years earlier. The congregation found it difficult to find a permanent rabbi but was able to retain Joseph Thuringer, a well-educated layman and brother of a member. The small congregation never numbered more than 20 families and in 1879 rented the synagogue to the recently organized First Unitarian Society, beginning a long period of occupancy by varied religious groups and businesses.

An 1885 bird’s-eye view of Madison [3]

In the 1880s Madison grew from about 10,000 to 13,000 residents and the area around the capitol square became dense with houses, businesses, and churches. A bird’s-eye view from 1885 shows the Gates of Heaven building (letter N in the illustration and labeled “Jewish Synagogue”) nestled between a house and the Congregational chapel. By this time, both buildings were overshadowed by the First Congregational Church (1872-74; C). Other churches in this view are First Baptist Church (1854; A), Grace Episcopal Church (1855; E), and St. Raphael Catholic Church (1857, 1882; G). Only Grace Episcopal Church remains.

An 1885 drawing of the building [4]

Also in 1885, Leo Andrew Stager, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, sketched the Old Synagogue as an isolated structure showing the site that sloped to the rear. An exposed basement was entered at ground level from the rear of the building. The basement walls were sandstone while the side walls were faced with buff brick. The building saw a procession of religious and commercial uses after the congregation stopped using the building for services; they sold it in 1916 when it became a funeral home. Here is a fragmentary list with known, if incomplete, dates of occupancy. [e]

Holy Trinity Church postcard, postmarked 1910. [5]

  • First Unitarian Society (1879-1886)

  • Women’s Christian Temperance Union (1890)

  • First Church of Christ, Scientist (1898)

  • Church of the Holy Trinity, English Lutheran (1908+)

  • Funeral Home: Gill, Gill-Joyce, McGuire (1916-1938)

  • Full Gospel Mission Church (1930+)

  • Mission Inn tea room (after 1930)

  • U.S. government records storage (ca. 1941-44)

  • Lipke Furniture store (1944)

  • Church of Christ (1945-51)

  • Dental office (1952+)

  • For rent (1965-66)

  • Veterinary office (1970)

  • Kastenmeier for Congress headquarters (1970)

The building in 1970 [6]

 

By 1970 the building was owned by the Gates of Heaven Preservation Fund. After the 1970 election, the building was once again empty, apart from fundraising events, and still hanging on to its dignity. Forty years earlier, the First Congregational Church had moved to their new building at the corner of University Avenue and Breese Terrace. Their old church was razed in 1931 and occupied by a Pennco gas station, part of which is visible to the right in the photo above. Fiore Coal and Oil Company owned the station as well as the Old Synagogue. It was a prime downtown corner and the Madison Bank & Trust Company was eager to build a multi-tenant office building on the parcel.

Site of the Synagogue and Congregational church today [9]

A demolition permit for Gates of Heaven was issued on July 21, 1970. This was not long after Mapleside, the Abel Dunning residence at 3335 University Avenue, had been demolished. The loss of the 1853 sandstone farmhouse helped spark the adoption of Madison's historic preservation ordinance and the Landmarks Commission as well as the founding of the Madison Trust. But neither the ordinance nor the commission were in place when Gates of Heaven was threatened. Nonetheless, the Fiore Company delayed the demolition to give the Gates of Heaven Preservation Fund time to raise the money to move the building. Newspapers reported an ambitious mix of fundraising activities that ultimately succeeded.

The sun was shining on Saturday, July 17,1971, when the Old Synagogue was moved to its new home at James Madison Park. Two days later, The Capital Times editorialized:

Hundreds of Madisonians stood wide-eyed at the sight of the brick and sandstone structure, mounted on 96 aircraft wheels, inching its way between stores and parking lots. They watched it all with what must have been a mixture of apprehension and joy.

Apprehension, because the little structure was so old and fragile that one false move might have sent it crashing to rubble.

And joy, because it was the first time in many years of assaults on Madison’s historic buildings that the forces of preservation prevailed over the forces of greed and destruction.

 

Epilogue

There was still much work to be done to the Old Synagogue. Financial support for the restoration came from local supporters plus $60,000 from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Volunteers and businesses pitched in. The public was invited to an open house on July 23, 1972, before restoration was complete. Two weeks later a couple was married in the building — likely the first Jewish wedding ceremony in Gates of Heaven since 1877. In the years that have followed, more weddings have been celebrated, milestones marked, meetings held, and ballots cast.

The building is now maintained and managed by the City of Madison Parks Division. In 2022, preservation of the historic fabric of the structure—including stone, brick, doors and windows—was recognized with an award from the Madison Trust. The project also provided an opportunity to train and certify skilled labor and to develop methods for treating sandstone on other local buildings. The honorees were the City of Madison, InSite Consulting Architects, Abstract Masonry, and Building Restoration Corporation.

 

Gables of the Old Synagogue [9]

 

. . .

Notes

[a] The Gates of Heaven building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 29, 1970, as “Old Synagogue.” It was designated a Madison Landmark on May 20, 1974.

[b] There are various English renderings of the Hebrew. This transliteration is used by the Jewish Federation of Madison and by contemporary congregations in the U.S.

[c] Kutzbock and his partner Samuel Donnell designed the second Madison capitol (1859) as well as several extant houses in the Mansion Hill Historic District. Donnell died in 1860 and Kutzbock would depart for San Francisco soon after designing the synagogue.

[d] Sources describe Gates of Heaven as anywhere from the second oldest to the eighth oldest American synagogue building.

[e] Historic Madison Inc. has a good summary compiled by Lois Stoler who, with her husband Norton, was a driving force behind the campaign to preserve and move the synagogue. I’ve also done a spot check of newspapers.

Image Credits

[1] Photo by Michael Bridgeman

[2] Vignette of the Gates of Heaven Synagogue and Congregational Church, from “The capital of Wisconsin: view from the capitol house” drawn by Louis Kurz. 1 January 1864 Louis Kurz (1833-1921), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

[3] Norris, Wellge & Co, and Beck & Pauli. Madison, State capital of Wisconsin, county seat of Dane County. (detail) Milwaukee, 1885. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/75696711/

[4] Sketch of Gates of Heaven Synagogue, Madison, Wisconsin, by Leo Andrew Stager, dated 1885. Leo Andrew Stager, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

[5] Church of the Holy Trinity, (English Lutheran) Madison, Wis. Postcard published by E.C. Kropp Co., Milwaukee. Postmarked 1910.

[6] Wisconsin Historical Society Architecture & History Index. AHI #16103. 1970.

[7] Wisconsin Historical Society Architecture & History Index. AHI #16103. 1971.

[8] Wisconsin Historical Society Architecture & History Index. AHI #16103. n.d.

[9] Photo by Michael Bridgeman

Madison Trust