Nov 17, 2016 - Sale 2432

Sale 2432 - Lot 179

Price Realized: $ 2,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(JUDAICA.) Deed of New York's Congregation Shearith Israel, selling their Crosby Street synagogue. Document Signed by Jacob L. Seixas as president of the congregation, and twice by Daniel Seixas as Commissioner of Deeds. 4 manuscript pages plus a hand-colored manuscript plat map (by City Surveyor Edward Ludlam), and a docket leaf. 16 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches, bound with ribbon at top edge, and bearing the congregation's green paper seal; short separations at intersections of folds, otherwise minimal wear to text leaves and plat map, docket leaf quite worn. New York, 1 February 1859

Additional Details

The Congregation Shearith Israel was founded by New York's Sephardic population in 1654, and remains the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. Their original synagogue was on what is now South William Street, but they relocated to Crosby Street in 1834. To keep up with a membership that was moving steadily uptown, they moved again in 1860 to West 19th Street; they are presently located on West 70th Street.
The present deed grants the Crosby Street property to merchant William A. Hadden. The property's bounds are described in detail, and the congregation's acquisition of the property in 1833 is referenced. The attached plat map shows the congregation's land in pink, with the synagogue, parsonage house and sexton's house all shown in precise outline with their measurements.