In 1859, an early Quaker group, 20th Street Meeting House, expanded beyond the capacity of its home on Orchard Street, and acquired four lots on Gramercy Park South for $24,000. They commissioned the architectural firm of King & Kellum to construct the new space.
The original Quaker group had to obtain special permission to build a non-residential structure on Gramercy Park. The building was built using an innovative combination of heavy timber and iron post and beam. The exterior materials included light brick and a Dorchester Olive stone façade facing Gramercy Park. The design, created with the help of members, was considered unusual as it was “less severe” than most other Quaker buildings.
While the Quakers were traditionally pacifists, members of the 20th Street Meeting House took an active role in the Abolitionist movement during the Civil War era. Some members traveled South to open trade schools for freed slaves. Even more significantly, historical records indicate that members of the 20th Street Meeting House sheltered fugitive slaves on the second floor of the building, a stop on the Underground Railroad. A tunnel underneath the building that was used as an escape route for runaway slaves is still visible and accessible today.
In 1958, the Quakers moved out of 28 Gramercy Park South. Not long after, the newly created Landmarks Preservation Commission rushed to designate the structure. Unfortunately, landmark status in 1965 did not actually guarantee its preservation as a house of worship. In 1964, the 106-year old building had been sold to a developer for $500,000, who intended to turn the building into apartments. Following public outcry at the impending loss of the meeting house, it was purchased from the developer by a foundation hoping to convert it to a performing arts center. This venture failed. It was then sold to the United Federation of Teachers, which intended to use it for offices and meeting space. This, too, failed.
Then, in 1974 Rabbi Block, after a schism split his own congregation, came upon 28 Gramercy Park South. The deal to purchase the building was not finalized until 1975, but progress quickly took hold. Architect James Stewart Polshek, then Dean of Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, took notice of the sale and was so impressed by the space that he offered his design services pro bono in order to renovate and reconstruct the building as a synagogue. Brotherhood Synagogue was born.