{"nrhp_refnum":"04000296","name":"German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Mark","other_names":["Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Matthew","Community Synagogue Max D. Raiskin Center"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"323 E. 6th St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.72708575900003,"lon":-73.98700243599995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-04-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Renaissance Revival brick church building at 323 East 6th Street in Manhattan's East Village, built in 1847 for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Matthew and later used by a German Lutheran congregation and then a synagogue.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is a rare, little-altered pre-Civil War Renaissance Revival ecclesiastical design (Criterion C). It is also tied to the immigrant history of both German and Jewish communities in New York (Criterion A), including the congregation's losses in the 1904 General Slocum disaster.","narrative":"Built in 1847 on East 6th Street in what is now Manhattan's East Village, this red brick church has served as a house of worship for more than 155 years. St. Matthew's Lutheran Church built it as a branch, but the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Mark soon rented it and bought it in 1857, using it for 92 years. The unknown architect gave it a double-height temple front with four brick piers and a pediment, an unusual choice in an era when Greek Revival and Gothic Revival dominated church design in New York. Inside are a balcony on three sides, a large wooden arch, leaded-glass windows from the 1890s and the original organ. The congregation lost over 1,000 members in the 1904 General Slocum steamboat fire. Since 1940 the building has housed the Community Synagogue. It is valued for its rare design and its links to German and Jewish immigrant history.","period_of_significance":"1847-1940","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"MID-19th CENTURY/Renaissance Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still in use as a synagogue, the Community Synagogue Max D. Raiskin Center, which has occupied the building since 1940.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:53.087465-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/04000296.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000296/70e52a2150-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000296/70e52a2150-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Oleg Yunakov","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Community_Synagogue_Max_D._Raiskin_Center_-_02.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Oleg Yunakov</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Community_Synagogue_Max_D._Raiskin_Center_-_02.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319544","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Evangelical_Lutheran_Church_of_St._Mark","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5551093"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/german-evangelical-lutheran-church-of-st-mark-04000296/"}