Temple Beth-El, Religious building in Corsicana, Texas, United States.
Temple Beth-El is a synagogue in Corsicana featuring Moorish Revival architecture with intricate ornamental details and traditional religious design patterns integrated throughout. The structure displays characteristic elements of this style with decorative features that define the building's appearance and composition.
Corsicana's Jewish congregation formed in 1871 and worshipped in members' homes. After a full-time rabbi was engaged in 1898, the Reform wing resolved on 8 November 1898 to build Temple Beth-El; construction began the next year and the synagogue was dedicated on 27 September 1900. Membership neared 200 families during the 1920s oil boom, then declined; the Navarro County Historical Society bought the building in 1982 and restored it as a community center. It was listed on the National Register on 3 February 1987.
The congregation formed in 1871 and met in members' homes before the synagogue was built. In 1900, 66% of members were immigrants, over half from Poland, Russia or Hungary, and Temple Beth-El was noted as a Reform synagogue with a largely Eastern European, heavily Polish membership. Since 1990 the City of Corsicana has used the building as a community center, and a local rabbi still leads a Jewish service there monthly.
The former synagogue stands at 208 South 15th Street and has served as a City of Corsicana community center since about 1990, so it is not an active synagogue. A local rabbi still leads a Jewish service there monthly. The stained glass was renovated in 2010 and the façade and onion domes in 2013.
The building is one of only two State Antiquities Landmarks in Navarro County, alongside its 1981 Recorded Texas Historic Landmark status and 1987 National Register listing. It is also one of the few surviving Orientalizing-style buildings in the southwestern United States.
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