Congregation Emanuel (Statesville, North Carolina)

Congregation Emanuel is a Conservative synagogue in Statesville, North Carolina. Built in 1891, it is the oldest house of worship in Statesvillehttp://www.lasr.net/travel/city.php?Statesville&North%20Carolina&City_ID=NC0323023&VA=Y&Attraction_ID=NC0323023a066 and the third oldest synagogue building in the state.Rediscovering Jewish Infrastructure: Update on United States Nineteenth Century Synagogues, Mark Gordon, American Jewish History 84.1 (1996) 20-27 
The synagogue is located near downtown Statesville and the campus of Mitchell Community College at 206 North Kelly Street.
==History==
Jews are documented as living in Statesville before the Civil War, but the number of families was small and they gathered for prayer in private homes until a formal congregation was organized in 1883. Congregation Emanuel rented space for services in the Statesville Fireman's Hall for nine years before building a synagogue in 1891-2, at a time when Statesville had a sizeable Jewish population.IREDELL EXHIBITS FOCUS ON JEWISH HERITAGE, Charlotte Observer, May 12, 1999
==Architecture==
The brick, gable-end-to-the-street, Rundbogenstil building with its recessed, round-arch entrance and round-arch windows has suffered no major alterations in the century that it has served the Jewish community of Statesville.Romanesque style seen in local buildings, Gene Krider | Statesville Record & Landmark, August 18, 2008 Guide to Jewish U.S.A.: The South, By Oscar Israelowitz, 1988, p. 99 It is one of fewer than a hundred nineteenth-century synagogue buildings still standing in the United States.STATESVILLE SYNAGOGUE LEARNS IT'S ONE OF THE OLDEST IN THE NATION, Charlotte Observer - January 19, 1997
==External links==
* http://www.congregationemanuel.us/
==References==
Category:1891 architecture
Category:Synagogues in North Carolina
Category:Iredell County, North Carolina
Category:Conservative synagogues in the United States