B'nai Jehudah (1885-1908)

The building that used to stand here was Congregation B'nai Jehudah's second synagogue. It was built in a Moorish design, featuring twin towers with onion cupolas on top. Construction started in 1883 and took two years, finishing in 1885 just before Rosh Hashanah. The building had an impressive design and an expanded seating capacity for the growing congregation. However, it only served them for 23 years, with B'nai Jehudah moving to the new Linwood building in 1908.

B'nai Jehudah occupied the temple at 6th and Wyandotte from 1875. Just ten years later, the congregation's growth led leadership to look into moving to a new building. The Wyandotte building was sold for $15,500, more than twice what they had initially paid. The sale proceeds went to constructing the new temple, the Oak Street Temple. Work started in 1883 and lasted two years. It took so long in part because of the need to raise more funds and in part due to a brick shortage caused by Kansas City's rapid growth. In the meantime, the congregation rented the Wyandotte building from their buyer month-by-month.

When B'nai Jehudah occupied the Wyandotte building, the Kansas City Jewish community had grown in size and become a more permanent part of the city. This showed in the new building, which was built to be more sturdy and lasting than the old one. While the Wyandotte building was made from a simple frame structure, the new one was built of brick on top of a limestone basement foundation.

On September 4 and 5 of 1885, the dedication ceremony took place, kicked off by a procession of children carrying American flags. The congregation put their Torah scrolls in the new ark, lit the Ner Tamid over the sanctuary, and then celebrated at the nearby Progress Club with a five-course meal.

More details about the building were found in the newspaper on the day of the dedication:

The main entrance, which is reached by a flight of marble steps, twelve feet in height and thirty feet in width is composed of three arches, six feet in span and four iron columns. The towers on each side rise to the height of eighty feet surmounted by cupolas of oriental design ... From the front of the building presents a handsome and an imposing appearance. A circular arch decorates the side of the structure on Eleventh street, in the center of which is the symbol of the 'Shield of David," executed in enameled buff brick.

The congregation began looking for a new home in 1905. By this point, it had grown to about 200 member families and was exceeding the Oak Street temple's capacity. A new temple in Greek-inspired Classical style was built in the following years, and the congregation moved just before the High Holidays in September 1908.

Janem. The Oak Street Temple, The Temple, Congregation B'nai Jehudah. November 13th, 2020. Accessed November 4th, 2022. https://www.bnaijehudah.org/2020/11/13/the-oak-street-temple/.

Adler, Frank J. Roots in a Moving Stream: The Centennial History of Congregation B’nai Jehudah of Kansas City, 1870-1970 (Kansas City, MO: The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, 1972).

"Dedication of the New Temple at Kansas City, Mo.." The Jewish Free Press (St. Louis) September 9th, 1885. .3.