Baltimore, MD - July 25, 2021 - A three story brick building with three gable ends is nearing completion on Park Heights Avenue in Northwest Baltimore. There has been littIe attention paid to it in the local media, but I am sure that many of my friends who are interested in local architecture would find it to be a curiosity.
One would not expect a building of this style and detail to be built in suburban Baltimore in the 2020s, yet those who are familiar with the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Chasidic dynasty will recognize the design.
It is a precise copy of 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, New York, a house purchased by Chabad in 1940 for their headquarters. For over forty years the original "770" building was the shul and office of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson during a time when Chabad grew into a world-wide organization with 3,500 centers in 55 countries providing outreach to Jews of all denominations. (The Rebbe and his wife lived on President Street in Crown Heights.)
Since 1980, replicas of the 770 building have been built in Israel, Italy, Australia, Brazil, Canada, etc. While some of the replicas are precise copies, others retain some aspects of the original building, but have been adapted to new locations. For example, the 770 replica in Tacoma, Washington is only two stories high. The one in Milan, Italy has a balcony above the entrance instead of an oriel window. In Los Angeles, a fairly precise copy was constructed, but one of the gable ends was repeated a half dozen times to allow for a much larger building.
The 770 building design has been adapted for "pushkes", Talis zekels, designs for Aronei Kodesh, and even a children's bounce house.
