Museum at Eldridge Street

The Eldridge Street Synagogue is a synagogue and National Historic Landmark in Chinatown, Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1887, it is one of the first synagogues erected in the United States by Eastern European Jews.

The Orthodox congregation that constructed the synagogue moved into the downstairs beth midrash in the 1950s, and the main sanctuary was unused until the 1980s, when it was restored to become the Museum at Eldridge Street.

On December 2, 2007, after 20 years of renovation work that cost US$20 million, the Eldridge Street Project completed the restoration and opened to the public as the Museum at Eldridge Street, reflecting its cultural and educational mission, within the synagogue building. The museum offers informative tours that relate to American Jewish history, the history of the Lower East Side and immigration. Occasionally, Jewish religious events are celebrated there, though not in the former main sanctuary.

The effort to return the sanctuary to its Victorian splendor, while maintaining the idiosyncrasies of the original aesthetic and preserving patina of age, included plaster consolidation and replication of ornamental plaster elements, over-paint removal, conservation, in-painting replication of stenciling, wood finishing and decorative painting including: faux-woodgraining, marbleizing, and gilding by skilled craftsmen.