The historic
Adas Israel Synagogue was built in 1876 at 6th and G Streets, Northwest to house the
Adas Israel Congregation.
President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant attended the synagogue's dedication on June 9, 1876, marking the first Jewish service attended by a sitting president. The building is the oldest surviving synagogue building in the
District of Columbia. Over the following decades, an influx of immigrants from
Eastern Europe and
Russia swelled the congregation's numbers. The congregation continued to worship in the original synagogue until 1908, when a new building at Sixth and I Streets, NW was dedicated. The congregation later moved again, and the latter building is known today as the
Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. The original 1876 building was sold to Stephen Gatti, an
Italian-American fruit dealer and real estate investor who lived a block away. In the 1910s, Saint Sophia's
Greek Orthodox Church worshiped in the second-floor sanctuary. A succession of churches followed in the 1920s to 1940s. During the course of the next 60 years, the former synagogue's first floor was divided into retail spaces and housed a bicycle shop, barber, Joseph Funger's grocery store, Anthony Litteri's delicatessen, and other businesses. The historic synagogue building is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places, the
District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites, and
Historic American Buildings Survey. It is among the
oldest synagogue buildings still standing in the United States. It is also an official project of the
Save America's Treasures program.
Relocation to Capital Jewish Museum site (2016–21) Starting in 2016, the development of the
Capitol Crossing project required the building to move again, as the District of Columbia government sold the land on which it sat. In response, the museum was closed so that the building could be moved to a new permanent home, where it would re-open as part of a new museum building that would be constructed around the historic synagogue. The move proceeded in two stages. First, the structure was moved about 50 feet to a temporary location on Third Street NW, to await the construction of a parking garage that would serve as its permanent base. Then, in early 2019, the building was moved to its final stop at the corner of Third and F Streets, NW. Local elected officials attended the move and gave speeches, and a
rabbi offered a traveler's prayer. At the new location, the synagogue
faces east, in accordance with Jewish custom. It is now part of the Capital Jewish Museum. == 2025 shooting ==