building to serve the Lower East Side's rapidly growing Romanian-Jewish population. At the time, the property was valued at $95,000 (today $). The funds for the purchase were raised from the members of the congregation, and to honor those contributing $10 or more, names were engraved on one of four marble slabs in the stairway to the main sanctuary. The most generous gift was $500, at a time when $10 was two weeks' pay. The congregation also took out two mortgages; one for $50,000 (today $) with the Title Insurance Company, and a second for $30,000 (today $) with the Church Extension and Missionary Society. The congregation commissioned Charles E. Reid for extensive renovations, at a cost of $6,000 (today $). The "eclectic Byzantine" remodeling involved converting it for Jewish use by removing Christian symbols and adding a Torah ark and bimah (central platform from which the Torah is read) at the sanctuary's north end. The renovations retained the original "horseshoe-shaped gallery supported by twelve Ionic columns" and wooden pews with reading shelves (likely from the 1889 Cady renovation), but a number of structural changes were made. Steel beams were added to support the weight of the ark and bimah, the rear wall was re-built and the gallery extended to meet it, two skylights were added (a concave stained glass one and a clear glass one over the ark), and at the front of the building, on top of the shallow (14 feet deep) fourth-story attic, an equally shallow fifth-story attic was added. The completed structure filled almost the entire width of its approximately by lot, and seated 1,600 to 1,800. Dedicated in late December 1902, it was the Lower East Side's largest synagogue and only Romanesque one, and it became an "architectural and public showpiece". Early activities By 1903 the synagogue was well established on Rivington Street, and, due to its capacity and prominence, was often the site of significant or mass meetings. In April 1903 a service to honor the memory of Reform rabbi and Zionist leader Gustav Gottheil was held there, and a similar service was held for Theodor Herzl the following year. At the latter service, which was boycotted by Orthodox rabbis, Herzl was not eulogized, nor was his name mentioned. The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (UOJCA) held its third annual convention at the synagogue in June 1903, attended by around 100 delegates,