AP News, May 7th, 2007
The only synagogue ever designed by Frank Lloyd Wright has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
Beth Sholom, a soaring glass-and-concrete temple just outside Philadelphia, began welcoming worshippers nearly 50 years ago. On Sunday, the National Park Service recognized it as one of the architect's greatest achievements.
"This is not just a historic site," William Bolger, regional program manager for the park service, told about 500 people in the sunlit sanctuary of the building conceived as a modern Mount Sinai. "It is a living monument to our nation's culture."
The towering, flat-topped spire is constructed out of concrete, steel, aluminum and glass. It's the only synagogue Wright created during his 70-year, 1,000-project career. Wright died in 1959, six months before Beth Sholom was first used.
Beth Sholom was one of three Wright buildings given status as National Historic Landmarks recently. The others are the Hollyhock House in Los Angeles and the Price Tower in Bartlesville, Okla. They join other Wright buildings on the list, including his home in Oak Park, Ill., Fallingwater in western Pennsylvania and Taliesen West in Arizona.
The designation for the synagogue is part of the congregation's plan to make it a semipublic site, one whose costly upkeep can be supported in part by tours, government funding, philanthropy and a museum shop.
"We felt federal landmark status would go a long way toward people realizing what a truly important building this is," said Herb Sachs, past president of Beth Sholom Congregation, who launched the effort about two years ago.
Beth Sholom is the fourth synagogue on the park service's list of about 2,500 national landmarks.
