W. F. J. Graham built the two-story auditorium for the Sinai Hebrew Congregation of Beth-El, as an addition to an 1860s building. The wooden building’s tall rectangular mass features pedimented gabled ends, slender windows, and simple Greek Revival detailing. The synagogue closed in 1927 and later was purchased by the Jessie Allen Wise Garden Club, an organization responsible for the restoration of several historic landmarks in Jefferson, including the Excelsior House Hotel (211 W. Austin Street), as well as for staging the city’s Historical Pilgrimage annually since 1947.
Nearby, the First United Methodist Church (1884; 305 W. Henderson) is an elaborate Carpenter Gothic church. The tower at the center of the facade has a gabled entrance portico, repeating the split pediment design on the church’s main roof above.