MOUNT NEBOH SYNAGOGUE
79th Street near Columbus Avenue
1928-1984

The synagogue was an imposing six-story structure with Byzantine influences, but for those who loved the place, the attachment was more personal and cultural than architectural. “Mount Neboh is not the Taj Mahal, and nobody says it is,” Alan Towers, a neighborhood resident, told The Westsider, a local newspaper, in 1981. “I think it’s unorthodox, it’s odd, but so is the whole Upper West Side. In the East 60’s, they would think it’s an eyesore. We think it’s the crown jewel of the street.” In the mid-80’s, the building was razed and replaced with an apartment house.

Mount Neboh Synagogue
(Originally Unity Synagogue)

130 West 79th Street
New York, N.Y. 10024

The building more familiarly known as Mount Neboh Synagogue existed only 56 years. It was built in 1927-28 for the Unity Synagogue, as designed by Walter S. Schneider. Unity Synagogue was formed by the merger of Congregation Peni-El of 525 West 147th Street, and Congregation Mount Zion of 37 West 119th Street. The newly created synagogue was short-lived, however, and the building was acquired in 1930 by Mount Neboh Synagogue, which had been located since 1917 at 562 West 150th Street. In 1978, the synagogue went out of existence and the building was purchased by the Crossroads Seventh-day Adventist Church, which remained until 1981. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building in 1982, despite objections by the church owners. After much public controversy over the survival of this building, the Commission decided that the designation had caused an undue financial hardship, and allowed the building to be razed in 1984.