Baltimore Sun colleague Ed Gunts has a story on the restoration of the historic Lloyd Street Synagogue:
Baltimore's historic Lloyd Street Synagogue was almost torn down in the late 1950s to make way for a parking lot. An architect was hired to prepare scale drawings of the structure, so there would be a record of it after it was gone.
Now the 1845 building is bustling with activity, after a $1 million restoration and the opening of a lower-level gallery designed to extend its reach as a center of education and tourism.
The Jewish Museum of Maryland, which now owns the synagogue, opened the gallery Sunday as the latest addition to its Herbert Bearman campus. Hundreds of visitors came to hear a concert in the sanctuary and tour "The Synagogue Speaks," a $300,000 exhibit that traces the history of the building at 11 Lloyd St., Maryland's first synagogue and the third-oldest synagogue still standing in the country.
The exhibit opening was the culmination of a series of events held to mark the end of the restoration project and the 50th anniversary of the museum, established in 1960 to save the synagogue from the wrecking ball. It followed a formal rededication of the building on Thursday that drew dignitaries from Maryland's religious, political and business communities, including Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Cardinal William Keeler, the former archbishop of Baltimore.
The synagogue is "a living testament to Baltimore's Jewish history and Maryland's history of religious freedom and tolerance," Rawlings-Blake said. "It is also a great attraction for heritage tourism."