The Carlebach Shul

305 West 79th Street

by Tom Miller

In the 1880s and ‘90s, the Upper West Side was developing at blinding speed.  Comfortable homes for middle- and upper-middle-class families filled the side streets while areas like Riverside Drive, and West End Avenue were becoming lined with elegant mansions.

With upscale homes came the need for private carriage houses, and a row of two-story stables was erected along West 79th Street to serve the homeowners of West End Avenue. Among them was 305 West 79th Street, a modest but attractive structure of gray-beige brick with limestone trim.

A stone cornice supported by brick pilasters above the carriage bays separated the second story.  The architect mimicked rusticated stone on the second floor by recessing every fifth course of brick.  The windows at this level were capped by eye-catching splayed limestone lintels.  The unpretentious pressed metal cornice was topped by a handsome stone balustrade.

Many of the grand houses along the avenues were being replaced by apartment buildings. 

As more residents poured into the Upper West Side, schools, hospitals, and churches followed.  Shearith Israel built its impressive synagogue on 70th Street and Central Park West, and down the block from 305 West 79th the elaborate Dutch Reformed Collegiate Church was erected.

As the turn of the century approached, change was on the horizon for the little carriage house and the neighborhood in general.  Many of the grand houses along the avenues were being replaced by apartment buildings.  In 1907, the carriage house had been converted to a garage run by The Auto Operating Company.

Before the outbreak of World War I, every original structure on the block except 305 West 79th Street had been demolished.  At the corner of West End Avenue, the hulking red brick and limestone New Century apartment building was constructed in 1910, and at 307 West 79th Street was the Imperial Court.  Squashed in between remained the little brick carriage house-turned-garage.

A Mr. Hargraves fell on hard times in 1914.  He parked his impressive seven-passenger Peerless automobile, which he had bought in 1912, at the Auto Operating garage.  The car boasted “every modern equipment” and was a hybrid of the landaulet and touring bodies.  Hargraves had paid $6,200 for the car—over $195,000 in 2024 terms.

 But the once-wealthy man experienced what he referred to as “reversals” and advertised the Peerless in Motor Age magazine to raise fast cash.  “Condition absolutely dependable,” said his ad.  “Will accept $975 for quick sale.”

 Before long, the building was annexed by the Imperial Apartments.  A laundry was installed on the upper floor while tenants’ automobiles were garaged below.

 Then, in the 1940s, Congregation Kehilath Jacob acquired 305 West 79th Street and renovated it as a synagogue.  Unlike some of the other grander temples, the congregation expressed its joy and devotion through dance and song, as well as more traditional rituals.

Congregation Kehilath Jacob acquired 305 West 79th Street and renovated it as a synagogue.

In the meantime, Rabbi Naphtali Carlebach was among the leading rabbis in Berlin and, later, Baden, Austria.  With the oppression of the rising Nazi Party, the rabbi brought his family to the safety of the United States.  In 1950 Rabbi Carlebach assumed leadership of the congregation.  At the time of his death in 1967, his son Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach took over the guidance of the synagogue, and in the 1980s, his twin brother, Rabbi Eli Chaim, assumed an equal position.   

Rabbi Schlomo Carlebach was an accomplished songwriter, prompting The New York Times to call him “the foremost songwriter in contemporary Judaism.”  His Am Yisrael Chai became a rallying cry for Jews trapped in the Soviet Union. 

Because of the decades of the family’s leadership, the synagogue is familiarly called “The Carlebach Shul.”  The congregation’s site says of its building, “It is certainly one of the most unique synagogues in New York City, possibly in the world.”  Indeed, the little brick holdout stuffed between the massive apartment buildings is endearing enough that there is a synagogue inside, making it one of New York’s hidden wonders.

Tom Miller is a social historian and blogger at daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com

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