Jacob Fabian would become the most significant single client of Fred Wesley Wentworth. Together they would collaborate on several of the most significant buildings in Paterson and for that matter in New Jersey.
Fabian’s story is nothing short of remarkable. He was born in Austria in 1865 to a Jewish family. He was a year younger than Wentworth and couldn’t come from a more different background. He immigrated to America at age 17 by himself and immediately went to work. He settled in New York City and for fourteen years worked in the clothing manufacturing business.
He arrived in Paterson in 1896, sensing the retailing potential of the growing city and opened a clothing store. Apparently, his timing and business skills were excellent and before long he was one of the most successful retailers in the city.
Fabian’s retail business operated in Paterson for eighteen years on Main Street at a site that was later occupied by Meyer Brothers. When the fire of 1902 destroyed most of downtown, including his store, Fabian relocated and quickly rebuilt the business.
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Fabian Tomb |
Tired of retailing and having sufficient funds, Fabian ‘retired’ in 1914 and operated some real estate he owned. However, he quickly became bored with retirement and sought out other ventures. Fabian swapped an apartment building for a vacant lot near the center of Paterson and built the Regent Theatre, the first dedicated movie theatre. Wentworth designed the building for Fabian and it was an immediate success. This was the first of many collaborative building projects that Wentworth and Fabian would design and build as a team.
We can only speculate on how Wentworth and Fabian met. Perhaps it was because both men were active in the Masons. Maybe it was because they were neighbors in the same Eastside area. Or it could be they came together through downtown business activities. However, they couldn’t have had more different backgrounds but that doesn’t seem to have limited their collaboration and mutual respect. Many well born, Ivy League educated architects would have probably let the opportunity to develop buildings for an immigrant entrepreneur pass. For Wentworth, working with Fabian must have been a bit of a challenge. While there is no written evidence one way or the other, Wentworth’s value system was grounded in a merit based judgements. The Casque and Gauntlet Society, which meant so much to Wentworth, was based on the value of the noble individual, regardless of background. Wentworth came from a Unitarian family and practiced at a small Unitarian Universalist Church in Paterson. Perhaps their teachings had their influence. Regardless of the origins, Wentworth and Fabian fulfilled each others vision and capabilities.
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Fabian Theatre Paterson at night |
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Fabian Theatre Inside, Paterson |
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Stanley Theatre, Jersey City |
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Their first project was a new building type. In 1914, Fabian built the Regent Theatre with seating for 2,500 – first theatre designed for moving pictures as well as live shows. The Regent became a huge success and Fabian was determined to expand his role in the emerging entertainment business and over a period of the next fifteen years built a sizable entertainment empire. Just consider his accomplishments:
- Between 1914 to 1929, Fabian built five grand movie palaces in major cities of New Jersey all of which were designed by Fred Wesley Wentworth.
- Continued an aggressive expansion and construction program during labor and material shortages during World War I and subsequent years.
- Fabian independently produced movies, most notably with an Alpine theme, hearkening back to Fabian’s home in Austria.
- Fabian quickly assembled a network of movie theatres in the New York metropolitan area. This was done in combination with live theatre operations, including the Mosque Theatre in Newark, the largest and most important venue in NJ
- In 1926, merged with the Stanley Group, a theatre firm based in the Philadelphia area. Was known as Stanley-Fabian.
- Owned the NJ First National Exchange, VP of Associated First National Pictures, one of the largest studios in Hollywood
- By 1928, group operated 247 theatres throughout the northeast and had an associated studio, $40 million in business.
- In October of 1928, Vitaphone, Stanley Co. and First National Pictures merged with Warner Bros. in a $200 million deal.
- Fabian with his sons operated theatres after sale to Warner Brothers. He controlled 40 theatres in NY metro area.
- Simon Fabian, son of Jacob, later took back the Warner Stanley organization and in the 1950s is best known for introducing Cinerama to the American movie going public.
Fabian and Wentworth accomplished the remarkable feat of creating memorable theatre experiences for millions in the northern New Jersey area.
Wentworth and Fabian - Buildings of the Jewish Community of Paterson
The remarkable collaboration between Fabian and Wentworth was not limited to movie theatres. Fabian’s energy and generosity transformed the institutional life of the Jewish community of Paterson, a contentious and difficult group. A group of German Jews settled in Paterson in the mid Nineteenth Century and rather quickly became part of the city elite. Paralleling the experience of “our crowd” in New York City, the German Jews of Paterson formed their own social system and organized a fairly staid community fairly quickly. The best known and most successful of the first wave of Jewish Patersonians was Nathan Barnert, who came left Germany in 1840s. After making and losing a small fortune in the card tables at the California Gold Rush, Barnert ultimately settled in Paterson where he owned a clothing manufacturing business that produced uniforms for the Union during the Civil War. While this was a success, his later career in real estate was even more successful and he earned a sizable fortune. He served a variety of political roles, including Mayor of the Paterson and was active in the Democratic Party. He was an honest leader with a reputation for prudence and sound judgement.
Beginning in the 1890s, the Jewish population of Paterson dramatically increased with immigrants from eastern Europe, particularly the textile cities of Lodz in Poland and Bialystok in Belorussia. Other immigrants from southern and Eastern Europe changed the Paterson demographic profile. There was significant tension between older residents, particularly millworkers, and the newer immigrants. Millowners, facing increasing competition and pressures on pricing, took advantage of the situation and conditions in the mills for the growing number of immigrant workers deteriorated dramatically. The outcome was inevitable and in 1913, a devastating strike led by the Industrial Workers of the World crippled the silk industry. Jewish workers played a major role in the strike, much to the dismay of the older, more established Jewish community.
Other members of the Jewish immigrant community, were becoming part of the economic mainstream at remarkable rates and by the end of the First World War had reached a level of real prosperity and commitment to the city. They were able to sustain an array of institutions, including the new Barnert Memorial Hospital, synangogues and social organizations. Their desire was to become part of the American mainstream and there was no better architect than Fred Wesley Wentworth to provide a truly American architectural vocabulary to their aspirations.
Barnert Memorial Hospital
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Barnert Hospital, Paterson, NJ |
The first building that Wentworth designed for the Jewish community was the Barnert Memorial Hospital. The Jewish community operated a small dispensary for several years and the growing population as well as an increasing number of Jewish physicians created a demand for an independent, Jewish institution. The other two hospitals in Paterson were religiously affiliated. St. Josephs was part of the Roman Catholic services in the city and operated by the Sisters of Charity. The Paterson General Hospital was founded by the leading women of the city, almost all of whom were Protestants. They received significant support from the Protestant Churches in the City. The Jewish population was reportedly less than comfortable in either institution.
Barnert donated a site in 1914 on East 30th Street and Broadway and provided an endowment to get the project started. Jacob Fabian, then still in retailing, was the chair of the building committee. The design is a Roman revival building with classic detailing and proportions. The building was constructed of a pink granite base and yellow brick with extensive detailing and rather elaborate materials. Its design was substantive and comforting. The building stood until the mid 1960s when it was demolished for a newer more modern and far less impressive structure. The rich materials of the façade were taken by the demolition contractor, V. Ottillio and Sons and reused in their own office building in Totowa, approximately three miles from the Hospital.
Temple Emanuel
The grandest and most architectural significant building that Wentworth designed for the Jewish community of Paterson was Temple Emanuel. It is a remarkable work that is iconic in the Paterson community. It was designed in the late 1920s, and Jacob Fabian had reached a level of financial success that enabled him to help finance a monumental building while incorporating many of the lessons he and Wentworth had learned in theatre design and construction.
The building took synagogue design beyond what had existed in Paterson. The earliest building was B’nai Jeshrun (known as The Barnert Memorial Temple), a Moorish design at the corner of Broadway and Straight Street that was the home of the older, more established Reform Jewish community. The building was highly decorated with elaborate windows and the interior had carved wooden pulpit in the Moorish style. The arches were all peaked and there was a polychromatic design. The interior materials were not elaborate and the wall finishes were pressed metal and plaster that were popular in Victorian commercial buildings.
The newer more Orthodox communities that arrived from Eastern Europe quickly built traditional houses of worship with the pulpit in the center of the space and balconies for women. These buildings on Water and Crosby Streets were functional, moderately decorative but essentially simple buildings that blended into the neighborhoods.
Temple Emanuel was more than simply a house of worship. It was one of the early synagogues with a school building, a complete social hall, an office center and other related facilities.
The design of Temple Emanuel reflects the capabilities of an experience architect and sophisticated client working together. The design of Temple Emanuel was a collaborative effort on the highest order. Wentworth and Fabian put their experience to work in designing large auditoriums in relatively tight urban sites and solving the construction problems of creating open, clear span space. They understood how to exploit the drama of moving from the street, into a tight lobby and then opening into a large public space to create the “wow” experience of surprising volume and design. The building creates a dramatic architectural experience.
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Temple Emanuel Details, Paterson, NJ |
The design overview is sui generis; one would be hard pressed to find a synagogue, or for that matter any building, exactly like it anywhere in the United States. There are other synagogues with octagonal designs that are set on corners. Temple Emanu El on Taft and Morris Avenues in Providence, Rhode Island and Temple Sinai on St. Charles Street in New Orleans, Louisiana have similar organizational designs and were built in the 1920s.
The sanctuary is octagonal and heavily influenced by expressionist and art deco designs. The interior walls are a fluted faux terra cotta material. The ark, the center of focus for the Jewish service, is constructed of multi colored fine marble and an ornate golden covered ornamented doors. The octagonal design and clear span structure creates an opportunity for elaborate fenestration and the stained glass over the main sanctuary space in golden colors is remarkable in its design and beauty. The other stained glass windows throughout the sanctuary space emphasize verticality culminating in a highly decorated religious theme, lifting the worshipers upward towards the heavens. Again, the window’s colors cast a golden glow on the attendees.
While somewhat common in 1920s theatre designs, there are few religious buildings that use this vernacular and even for the art deco buildings, the vocabulary of design and decoration in Temple Emanuel is unusual. From the exterior, the gray granite exterior is restrained. The two entry lanterns at either end of the entrance anchor the stairs and shape the processional entry. The overall effect is reminiscent of Expressionist architecture popular in Germany and throughout Europe at the period combined with the art deco theatre buildings in the States. Members of the congregation report that Wentworth hired a synagogue specialist in his office, Abraham Goodman, to assist in the design of the building.
The building remains in tact, although the congregation’s recent decision to leave Paterson threatens its overall design and architectural integrity.
The Paterson YM-YWHA
The Paterson Jewish community’s social and athletic life was centered in Wentworth designed Y in downtown Paterson on Van Houten Street near the former site of Temple Emanuel. The building included social halls, gymnasiums, a swimming pool, class rooms and meeting rooms. The lobby had a snack bar and library of Judaica. For over fifty years, it was an active facility for clubs, dances, social gatherings of all types. The design is an institutional classical design of redbrick with granite ornamentation.
The Y relocated in the 1970s to Wayne where it continues to operate. The building has been rehabilitated into a public school and continues to function well.
