OTHER AWARDS: Registered Texas Historical Landmark; National Registry of Historic Places

HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE: Begun in 1898, Temple Beth El represents Nineteenth Century Moorish Revival synagogues built by Reformed Jews in the United States. Similar structures with the large Rose window, flanking arched windows, twin octagon towers and onion domes, also exist in Charleston, West Virginia, and Butte, Montana. These three, designed by an unknown architect, resemble a synagogue near Warsaw, Poland. The Moorish Revival style first appeared in 1839 in Leipzig, Germany, and immigrants carried the style to the United States in the 1850s.

HISTORY OF STRUCTURE: Temple Beth El was built by mercantile Jews, primarily from Germany, who came to Corsicana with the Houston and Central Texas Railroad in the 1870s. By 1898, sixty families organized the congregation and began construction of the structure dedicated in September 1900. The ceremony included the gentile community, and had organ music, singing of Psalms, lighting the perpetual lamp, and girls dressed in white dresses carried baskets of fresh flowers. The synagogue was largely the work of the Ladies' Hebrew Society.

RESTORATION: In 1981 the congregation Temple Beth El disbanded due to a declining and aging membership. The building was scheduled for demolition when local citizens organized the "Save the Temple Committee" because of its architectural design and historical significance. Private donations, state and local grants, dinners, style shows, and musical reviews raised more than $100,000 for the restoration carried out under the direction of restoration architect Raiford Stripling. The project was completed in 1987, and the property deeded to the City of Corsicana. The building is used by the community for activities and club meetings.