What you see above you is the house that used to stand at the corner of Church & Calvin Streets. The house served as a home for the congregation for about 8 years until it moved into the new synagogue structure shown at the left of the picture. After that, the house was the home of the rabbi and sometimes served as a cheder if necessary. When the Jewish Community Centre was built, Cheder classes moved there and the house became the home for the caretaker of both facilities.
That house served the congregation for almost 75 years and was maintained by the synagogue membership and sometimes with the labour of the caretakers. During the pandemic, it became apparent that the building was overrun with vermin and, although it was going to be further repaired for our current caretaker, Tim Bishop and his wife, it was discovered that it was also filled with asbestos throughout the walls up and down. Therefore it was not worth removing the asbestos and almost rebuilding the structure completely. We were sad to have to condemn the building but it did come down with the financial help of the Foundation. The picture below showed that happening.
Now with any luck the parking lot shown below will be graded properly, paved and then marked especially as Handicap Accessible parking spots. That’s the plan for the summer of 2024.
