Temple Emanuel, Reform synagogue in Denver, Colorado, United States.
Temple Emanuel is a synagogue at 51 Grape Street in Denver's Hilltop neighbourhood, built in 1956 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. Its earlier homes are the 1898–99 Pearl Street building in North Capitol Hill, designed by John J. Humphreys and expanded in 1924 by Thielman Robert Wieger, and the 1882 Curtis Street synagogue.
Founded in 1874 with 22 members, the congregation dedicated its first synagogue at 19th and Curtis Streets on September 28, 1875. A second building at 24 Curtis Street followed in 1882 and was gutted by fire in 1897. The Pearl Street synagogue, designed by John J. Humphreys, was built in 1898–1899 and expanded in 1924 by Thielman Robert Wieger.
The congregation's 1898 Pearl Street synagogue was designed in Eastern-Islamic style, the only such synagogue in Colorado, a choice made by German and American Reform Jews to fit into Christian society while recalling Jewish origins in the Near East. After the congregation moved to Grape Street in 1956, the building served Baptist and Pentecostal congregations and later Denver Community Church.
The Pearl Street building is at 51 Grape Street in North Capitol Hill, listed on the National Register since 1987. It has not served as a synagogue since 1957, when the congregation sold it; Denver Community Church bought it in 2013 and announced in 2022 that it would sell it. The current congregation worships at its 1956 Grape Street building in Hilltop.
This place was the first Jewish congregation established in Colorado and held significant importance for Jewish communities across a wide area of the West. Its founding helped establish religious infrastructure for the Jewish settlers who arrived in the region during those early years.
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