Synagogue of Congregation Ohab Zedek

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This synagogue is located in the quiet residential setting of Belle Harbour. The building is faced with quarry stone and brick and includes some interesting temple details like the row of front doors shaped like an open book. The complex includes the main sanctuary, a balcony, a school, a chapel, a roof terrace, and a ballroom. Badly damaged during Hurricane Sandy with major flooding of its lower floors, the building only partially reopened in 2014 and has still not fully recovered. Victor Civkin, the synagogue’s architect was not particularly well-known especially in New York. However he also designed a temple using similar materials in Fairfield, Connecticut, as well as numerous residential structures in southwest Connecticut.

Forest Hills Jewish Center

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There were two Jewish Centers honored in 1949 (the Jewish Center of Kew Gardens Hills being the other). Here, a more restrained modernism was employed with a slightly convex front facade faced in a warm stone block and featuring a center, three-door entrance topped by tall stained glass windows. There is very little overt detailing, only with small Jewish symbols and phrases carved above the entrance doors. The principal side elevation also features the same stone and a long bay of stained glass windows framed in concrete. At the rear of the site is a five-story school building. This structure is clad in yellow brick that harmonizes well with the stone of the Jewish Center, a cantilevered entrance canopy, and International style casement windows.

Church of the Transfiguration

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The Church of the Transfiguration is one of the most unique and striking structures honored by the Chamber of Commerce during this era. Nestled within a compact residential part of Maspeth, the A-frame church incorporates traditional Lithuanian symbols into a definitively modern structure. The front facade is a wall of colored glass which sits recessed under the projecting eaves of the A-frame. The red entrance doors are surrounded by white brick, have a red undulating canopy over them, and above that a modern sculpture of the Transfiguration. The base of the building and the short projecting wings are clad in orange brick. Symbols of Lithuanian culture abound on the exterior as well as the interior, which was designed by V. K. Jonynas. A prominent bell tower rises up with a stylized shrine at the top. The architect Jonas Mulokas specialized in Lithuanian Catholic churches and several of his works still exist in Illinois among other places. An older rectory sits to the right of the church and was reclad in orange brick to match the newly constructed church.

Glendale Lumber Company

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This commercial facility was built to replace the previous structure which burned down in a major fire the year before. Glendale Lumber has existed in this location since its founding in 1920 by Edward Wagner and remains owned by the Wagner family. The design is utilitarian while also employing popular finishes of the period such as aluminium framed windows, terrazzo flooring, and wood paneling. The complex remains remarkably intact down to the unique 1960s pebble-globe chandelier in the showroom designed by Mrs. Jack Wagner Sr. Behind the showroom and offices in the main storage warehouse is the original modular shelving system imported from England in the early 1960s, which is still in use today. Special thanks to Lance Wagner Sr. and the Wagner Family for the tour of their facility.