for eating ham, Taubenhaus stated that he did not believe his congregation would expel him for doing the same. In 1895, Samuel Radnitz succeeded Weisskopf as cantor, a role he filled until his death in 1944. By the turn of the twentieth century English had replaced German in the services and official minutes, and the second days of holidays eliminated. The synagogue had 106 members and annual revenues of around $8,000 (today $), and its Sunday School had approximately 300 pupils. Taubenhaus left the congregation in 1901, and the following year Alexander Lyons was hired as the congregation's first American-born rabbi. Lyons went on to serve the congregation for 37 years, until his death in 1939 at the age of 71. In 1907, the women's auxiliary was founded; until then, though seating was mixed, women had little say in the running of the synagogue. That year the congregation had 110 member families and annual revenues of $9,259.55 (today $). The congregational school, which held classes one day a week, had 15 teachers and 200 students. Garfield Place and Eighth Avenue 1908–1929: New buildings In 1908, the congregation purchased a by lot on the northeast corner of Garfield Place and Eighth Avenue. Plans were made to erect a new synagogue building there with a sanctuary seating 1,500 people, at an anticipated cost of $100,000 (today $). The structure was designed and built by the Manhattan architectural firm of Simon Eisendrath and B. Horowitz (or Horwitz). Construction began in 1909 and completed in 1910. Designed in the Classical Revival style, this "monumental example" of "austere neo-Classical grandeur" had five sides, representing the five books of Moses, a sanctuary that ultimately sat 1,200, and was capped by a saucer dome. The entrance faced the corner of Garfield and Eighth, and carved in stone over it was the Biblical verse fragment "MINE HOUSE SHALL BE AN HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLE" (). The basement held classrooms, an auditorium, and administrative offices, and behind the Torah ark was a combination Rabbi's study/Board meeting room. The State Street building was sold to Congregation Mount Sinai. 1909 was also the year Judah Leon Magnes proposed and founded his Kehilla, a "comprehensive communal organization for the Jews of New York", which operated until 1922. Lyons opposed its creation, arguing that Jews in New York were too diverse to co-exist in one organization with a single set of