[1] The United Hebrew Congregation formed on Erev Rosh Hashannah, the evening of September 29, 1837, when ten members rented a room in St. Louis for services.

[a] Abraham Weigel, who was to become United Hebrew Congregation's first president, and Nathan Abeles, the first secretary, rented a room over a grocery and held the first minyan in St.

[6] Twelve men met four years later at the Oracle Coffee House at 2nd and Locust to write the constitution for Achdut Yisrael, the United Hebrew Congregation.

[7] In 1841, a constitution was adopted based on the laws of Shulhan Aruch, which governs Orthodox synagogues, and United Hebrew was formally founded, the first Jewish congregation west of the Mississippi.

[7] On August 10, 1855, United Hebrew Congregation bought a 48 by 90 feet (15 by 27 m) lot near the corner of Sixth and St. Charles for $6,240 (equivalent to $204,000 in 2023).

[7] At the time, United Hebrew Congregation not only had a cantor but it also employed a shohet to slaughter animals in accordance with kashrut so that local Jewish families would have kosher meat available to eat.

[7] In 1880, United Hebrew Congregation's moved the dead bodies buried at its original burial ground at Jefferson Avenue and Gratiot Street to a new cemetery at Mount Olive near Clayton.

[10] The old burial ground had been established in 1837 and was a small lot of approximately 100 by 200 feet (30 by 61 m), with relatively shallow graves that often contained multiple dead bodies.

[10] United Hebrew moved steadily westward, next to Twenty-first and Olive Streets in 1879, and then in 1903 into a remodeled Mount Cabanne Church at the southwest corner of Kingshighway and Von Versen (after 1917, Enright).

Designed by the architectural firm of Maritz and Young with consulting architect Gabriel Ferrand, the notable, Byzantine revival structure was said to be one of the three largest synagogues in the nation.