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Jaffa Shrine

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1928–1930, Frank A. Hersh and Frederic James Shollar. Broad Ave. at 22nd St.
  • (William E. Fischer, Jr.)
  • (William E. Fischer, Jr.)
  • (William E. Fischer, Jr.)
  • (William E. Fischer, Jr.)

Operated by the Shriners, this building looks like a golden brick Middle Eastern fortress, with circular towers topped by elongated domes similar to minarets at the corners. Instead, the building is a 3,400-seat auditorium and conference center. The eleven-acre complex occupies an entire city block in Altoona, enclosing an acre of space under one roof. The central entrance facing Broad Avenue is topped with diapered bricks surrounding a large curved scimitar, the symbol of the Shriners.

Frank Hersh, a member of the Jaffa Shrine, and Frederic Shollar were popular Altoona architects in practice between 1904 and 1930. In their design for the limestone-sheathed city hall (1925–1927) at 1301 12th Street, they employed a stripped-down classicism in a formal composition of elongated windows and arched entrances. A quartet of fluted columns supports the namestone above the 12th Street entrance, conveying the dignity appropriate for a civic building. Altoona architect David B. Albright earned a Preservation Pennsylvania award in 2002 for his renovation of the city hall's interior.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Lu Donnelly et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament
St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Railroaders Memorial Museum (Pennsylvania Railroad Master Mechanics Offices and Testing Department)
Office Building District of Altoona
Mishler Theater

Citation

Lu Donnelly et al., "Jaffa Shrine", [Altoona, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-01-BL16.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 1

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, Lu Donnelly, H. David Brumble IV, and Franklin Toker. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, 331-331.

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