Among its important qualities, the Eldridge Street Synagogue is one of the very first buildings on the Lower East Side built specifically as a synagogue, and the first and finest synagogue built for the Orthodox East European Ashkenazic community. Its architects, the Herter Brothers, were prominent in construction on the Lower East Side. Its imposing facade, composed of Moorish, Gothic and Romanesque elements, is representative of the trend among synagogue architects towards oriental motifs and away from Christian European motifs.