Site of Temple Moses Montefiore

The congregation's numbers tell its story. The Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities says Moses Montefiore organized in June 1887 and appointed Rabbi Hyman Saft that year, and that the 1900 temple was finished in August. Membership peaked at 50 families in 1925, stood near 43 in the 1930s and 1940s, and fell to 15 by 1962, too few to support a full-time rabbi. In 1972 the remaining families sold the lot to the city, which demolished the temple on May 4, 1973. A benevolent society had bought land for a Jewish cemetery in 1881.

What the plaque says

Site of Temple Moses Montefiore In 1887 Jewish residents of the Marshall area organized the Moses Montefiore congregation, Adath Israel. Daniel Doppelmayer, a Civil War veteran and one of the pioneer Jewish settlers of the area, was selected as the first president. At his suggestion, the congregational name was chosen to honor Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1885), the noted Jewish financier and philanthropist of England. In 1900, under the direction of President Ike Hochwald, a temple was constructed at this site. Designed by the local architect C. G. Lancaster and built by the firm of Sonnefield and Emmons, it featured an elaborate middle eastern architectural style. The structure served as the congregation's place of worship and as a center of the community's cultural and civic activity until 1973, when it was razed. The Moses Montefiore congregation was founded on a tradition of community leadership, which was begun by pioneer Jewish residents who moved here when the area was first settled. Members and rabbis of the temple continue to play a vital role in the development of Marshall. Their contributions now serve as reminders of their influence on the civic, business and cultural character of the city. (1982)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Harrison County Historical Museum — 0.3 mi
  Galleries in Marshall's 1901 courthouse that run from the Caddo to the present, with Wiley College, Lady Bird Johnson's inaugural gown and a military gallery across the square in Memorial City Hall.
• Texas and Pacific Railway Depot and Museum — 0.3 mi
  The only surviving building of the Texas and Pacific shops at Marshall, a 1912 Mission Revival depot saved from demolition in the 1990s, still an Amtrak stop, with a railway museum and a Mikado locomotive.
• Starr Family Home State Historic Site — 0.4 mi
  Maplecroft, the 1871 Greek Revival house Frank Starr built in Marshall, with Ruth Starr Blake's glass and china, an 1880s kitchen restored in 2019 and a retirement home built for a formerly enslaved person.
• Jefferson Historical Museum — 14 mi
  A four-floor museum in Jefferson's 1888-90 federal post office and courthouse, with rooms for African-American history, Jewish heritage, the Caddo and Diamond Bessie, bought by the historical society in 1965 for $8,100.

More markers nearby

• Girlhood Home of Southern Beauty Lucy Holcombe Pickens — steps away
• Site of Marshall Masonic Female Institute — steps away
• Sam Houston's 1857 Campaign in Marshall — steps away
• First Baptist Church — steps away