Vermont's oldest Jewish congregation built the Old Ohavi Zedek Synagogue at Archibald and Hyde Streets in 1885. The building was erected in 1885 for Ohavi Zedek — Hebrew for "Lovers of Justice" — Vermont’s oldest Jewish congregation, which had been founded in 1876 by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, predominantly Lithuanian Jews. Take in the building’s distinctive vernacular interpretation of the Gothic Revival style: Gothic Revival details that lift the eye and mark its place in the neighborhood.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, this small but storied house of worship served its original congregation until 1952, when Ohavi Zedek moved to North Prospect Street. After that it was sold to Congregation Ahavath Gerim, a traditional egalitarian Conservative congregation. In recent years the building went up for sale in 2021 as the congregation faced shrinking membership and expensive repairs; in 2023 it was sold to local entrepreneur Kitter Spater.
Today the old synagogue currently houses retail space, its sanctuary and balcony remembered in the bones of the structure. Retail shelves now fill a sanctuary you can still picture serving Vermont's oldest Jewish congregation, before its 1952 move.