There are no answers, just more questions
Mar. 9th, 2010 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithIt seemed simple enough: look at some old maps of Launceston to see if there was a lane way running down the back of the old synagogue to explain why it was built facing away from the road.
Nothing on the 1881 map. Nothing on the 1856 map, although that just showed land owners. Nothing on the 1835 map (10 years before the synagogue was built) but in the middle of that block there appears to have been a small park or garden. Was it built to face that? And WTF is *that* anyway.
Found a type-written note in the community history file that said a condition of the bequest that provided the original construction funds was that the building can not be sold as long as there is one Jew living in the city. Don't know if that's true, but it's interesting.
Nothing on the 1881 map. Nothing on the 1856 map, although that just showed land owners. Nothing on the 1835 map (10 years before the synagogue was built) but in the middle of that block there appears to have been a small park or garden. Was it built to face that? And WTF is *that* anyway.
Found a type-written note in the community history file that said a condition of the bequest that provided the original construction funds was that the building can not be sold as long as there is one Jew living in the city. Don't know if that's true, but it's interesting.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-09 04:07 am (UTC)My mother is at the Melbourne Jewish Museum - she could check out the bequest conditions, if you want. It rings a bell, but I'm unreliable on something as specific and out of my place and time as this.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-09 08:40 am (UTC)If you could ask her, I'd appreciate it.
I used to assume it had been orientated away from the road for some reason but someone asked the caretaker guy at the open day last year and he didn't know why/wondered if there might have been another road on that side. I want to read the account of the opening in the local paper to see what that has to say. I have the date but I couldn't find a working microfilm reader in the library. I did find an article from when they tried to sell the building about 1881 and had to take it to court for permission because there was no congregation, and the opening of the Hobart synagogue, both of which I shall have to sit down and read because I am easily distracted :)
What I know about my home city from this time is dreadfully lacking so I'm keen to explore this further, if I can find a further.