Old Temple Israel building burns

Bad news for the old Temple Israel building (from KJRH online):

Historic synagogue catches fire in early morning hours

Photo Courtesy News Channel8



Video of the fire here, courtesy NewsChannel8, which has reported that the interior walls have collapsed.


This is especially sad because Kevin Stephens recently purchased the building with a plan to turn it into a community arts building. Recent story about those plans from KOTV here.

I photographed the building, inside and out, for a chapter of my book Abandoned Tulsa. Although the book is now out of print, an online version is available for free here.

My pictures of the building in 2005 can be seen in the Abandoned Tulsa blog archives here.