Includes ten digital photographs of synagogue exterior views shot by staff as part of the Small Town Jewish History Project. Synagogues depicted include those in Glassport, Charleroi, Brownsville, Mt. Pleasant, Scottdale and California, Pa. as well as California University's Azorsky Hall.

Pennsylvania has one of the largest and oldest organized Jewish Communities communities in the United States. Jews of Sephardic origin settled in what was to become the "Keystone State" in the early eighteenth century, though there were some Jewish traders in the area during the latter part of the seventeenth century. Jews began trading and residing in the areas of Central and Western Pennsylvania in the early years of the nineteenth century, and as their numbers increased, they began establishing burial societies and synagogues. The early Jewish settlers were mostly of German origin and were joined later by Jews of Central and Eastern European background. Chambersburg, Danville, Hanover, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Uniontown were among the early areas of Jewish settlement. In 1840, a Jewish burial society was established in Chambersburg in Central Pennsylvania, making it the first official Jewish organization established outside of Philadelphia. Congregation Rodef Shalom in Pittsburgh traces its initial beginnings to a Jewish burial society established there in 1847. There is a wealth of history and an extensive physical record of Jewish settlement throughout Central and Western Pennsylvania. Growing Jewish Communities established congregations, cemeteries, and social organizations, building their synagogues as a testament to their faith and community. Take a visual journey and discover a unique portion of Pennsylvania's ethnic and religious history.

With the sixth largest Jewish population and the fourth oldest organized Jewish community in the United States, Pennsylvania has hundreds of synagogues, past and present, and they come in all shapes, sizes and styles. Pennsylvania is unique with regard to the extensive number of locations that either have, or once had, functioning Jewish congregations and communities. While the city of Philadelphia has a large number of synagogues, both current and former, synagogues were established in many of the cities and towns found along the industrial and mining routes of Eastern Pennsylvania. Places such as Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, Hazleton, Reading, Wilkes-Barre and Scranton among others each have a Jewish history all their own and many beautiful synagogues. By presenting images of these many synagogues, especially the ones that are no longer used for Jewish worship, their history is documented, and the uniqueness and wealth of their architecture is shared for all. This diversity of architecture reflects that very same diversity of the Jewish communities that settled throughout Pennsylvania and indeed the whole United States.

The Jewish community of Philadelphia west of the Schuylkill River is a composite of seven distinct neighborhoods surrounding West Philadelphia proper. These include Fortieth and Girard, Parkside, Wynnefield, Overbrook Park, Wynnefield Heights, Southwest Philly, and Island Road. A gathering of seventy-five thousand Jewish people in West Philadelphia during the twentieth century qualified the area known as "a city within a city" as a second settlement area. Excellent public transportation included the famed Market Street Elevated. The West Philadelphia Jews flourished and supported dozens of synagogues and bakeries, and more than one hundred kosher butcher shops at the neighborhood's height from the 1930s through the 1950s. Newly arrived immigrants embraced traditional Jewish values, which led them to encourage their offspring to acquire a secondary education in their own neighborhoods as a way of achieving assimilation into the community at large. The Jewish Community of West Philadelphia portrays Jewish life throughout West Philadelphia in the mid-twentieth century. The book captures rare, nearly forgotten images with photographs gleaned from the community at large.

In 1740, Nathan Levyone of the first Jewish residents of Philadelphiarequested a plot of land to give his child a Jewish burial. This plot on Spruce Street became the first Jewish communal cemetery and marked the beginning of organized Jewish life in the colonial city. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, floods of Jewish immigrants came to the United States from Europe and settled in Philadelphia and throughout the Delaware Valley. As a result, hundreds of synagogues were organized and flourished. Today, Philadelphias myriad synagogues are like living museums of architectural history. From small wooden structures that evoke Eastern Europe to the sharp angles, modern lines and soaring sanctuary space envisioned by Frank Lloyd Wright, these synagogues reflect changing trends in style, design and function. With this comprehensive collection of images, Preisler helps record the regions unique religious and cultural history and captures in time its architectural treasures.

A new edition of this long unavailable classic reproduces photographic prints made from original negatives and features an extensive analytical introduction by the noted architectural historian Dell Upton.Before the 1936 publication of The Early Architecture of Western Pennsylvania, the architectual heritage of a region prominent in the history of early America had been almost totally neglected. Based on a four-year survey conducted by the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Istitute of Architects, Charles Morse Stotz's book provides the definitive description and analysis of structures ranging from log houses to colonial and Georgian structures to examples of the pre-Civil War Gothic revival. The volume defines the local architectural idiom as an expression of the frontier and early industrial societies that played such an important part in the history of nineteenth century America.This oversized volume of 416 black-and-white photographs, 81 measured drawings and an extensive text presents a splendid array of early dwellings, barns, and other outbuildings, churches, arsenals, banks, inns, commercial buildings, tollhouses, mills, and even tombstones. Time has proved this work to be the definitive record of an architectural heritage that was fast disappearing with the economic boom of World War II and the postwar years.The Early Architecture of Western Pennsylvania is also a work of precision, beauty, and integrity. The drawings ignore alterations made after 960 and shoe the buildings in their original condition, giving special attention to details such as window sashes, shutters, cornices, and roofs. The floor plan of each structure is included, and line drawings display the profiles of moldings and ornamentation. Signature stones and hardware convey the quality of the early craftsmen's work. In all cases, stone joining has been faithfully drawn, joint for joint, to record the charm of old wall patterns.This new edition makes a landmark book available to a new generation of readers - one especially aware of the importance of architectural preservation and guarding the history of the Western Pennsylvania region.