The New England Hebrew Farmers' Emanuel Society Synagogue and Creamery Site

In the 1890s, a group of Orthodox Jews who had first settled in Brooklyn, New York, moved to the village of Chesterfield in Connecticut. This move was part of an effort by the philanthropist Baron de Hirsch to resettle Jews fleeing pogroms in Eastern Europe. In 1890, a Jewish congregation was formally established and called Society Agudas Achim. Because farmland in southeastern Connecticut was inexpensive at the time, the purchase of the land was supported financially by de Hirsch and others.

A modest wood-frame synagogue was built on the site in 1892. That same year, the congregants built a creamery as a cooperative venture to serve as an outlet for the milk they produced. The site included a small powerhouse and a mikvah, and was partially bisected by Powers Brook, which originally provided power for the creamery. The community thrived here around the turn of the 20th century.

The creamery operated for about twenty years before changing trends in dairy consumption led to its demise. The building was eventually repurposed as an inn but was destroyed by fire in 1950. The synagogue was also damaged in the fire and was eventually destroyed by an arsonist in 1975. Today, the area is wooded except for an open grassy area where the synagogue stood, which is now marked by a commemorative stone plaque.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons