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SECOND MILL STREET
The new Mill Street Synagogue was built of brick and stone with a surface of Roman cement. The women's gallery was reached by a covered passageway from the upper story of the adjoining brick schoolhouse on the north. This passageway was built as a narrow bridge over the space intervening between the schoolhouse and the synagogue, so that in general the space would not be covered in, and when each year the congressional succah was built there the succah's roof could be open to the heavens. There was some discussion as to whether the front of the women's gallery in the rebuilt synagogue should be open or be closed by a lattice. The final decision was that it should be made of "handsome planed turned mahogany banister." The old wooden tablet of the Ten Commandments which stood above the Ark in the Shearith Israel's small synagogue at 70th Street was replaced by a more costly white marble tablet presented by Naphtali Judah. This is now imbedded behind the tablet of the Commandments in the large synagogue of today and it may be seen from the choir loft. |
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