Exclusive | Historic NYC synagogue and longtime home for pioneering artists asks $11M with stunning architectural details intact

Talk about divine inspiration.A former Lower East Side synagogue that later became a creative haven for generations of New York artists has hit the market for $10.95 million.The roughly 6,800-square-foot building at 80 Forsyth St.has served as the studio of fiber artist Dana Barnes since 2013 — but its artistic pedigree stretches back decades, with traces of its religious and creative past still embedded throughout the three-story property.Before Barnes moved in, the building was the longtime home and studio of Abstract Expressionist artists Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof, who took over the space in the 1960s.And before the artists came, there were worshippers.The 25-foot-wide brick building was originally erected as a synagogue in the 19th century for an early Eastern European Jewish congregation in the neighborhood, according to the sellers.Remnants of that chapter remain throughout the property — including a former mikvah, or a Jewish ritual bath, on the lower level, along with pointed arch window forms dating to its synagogue days.The building’s evolution from a house of worship into an artist enclave began during a transformative period for the Lower East Side, when artists were increasingly moving into the neighborhood’s former industrial, commercial and religious spaces.Resnick, a Russian-born painter who became associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement in New York, and Passlof, an American painter who studied with Willem de Kooning, made 80 Forsyth their home and workspace.The pair transformed portions of the old synagogue to suit their work while retaining much of the original structure.Some of those changes are still there more than half a century later.Hand-built pine walls installed by the two remain, as does an upper gallery mezzanine dating to the 1960s.

Original casement windows, cast-iron columns, skylights, and wood and concrete floors also survive.In places, the floors are still splattered with paint from the artists who worked t...