Temperance Temple (Chicago)

Woman's Temple Building (1910)

Temperance Temple (also known as Women's Temple or Woman's Temple) was located in Chicago, Illinois at the southwest corner of LaSalle Street and Monroe Street, in the center of city's financial district. It was built by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Work was begun in July, 1890, and the building was ready for occupancy in the May 1892. The ground was valued at US$1,000,000; the building was estimated to cost US$1,200,000; the rentals from the building were expected to bring in an annual income of over US$200,000; the capital stock was US$600,000, one-half of which was owned by the WCTU, and it was expected all would be secured to that association. Temperance Temple was demolished in 1926.

History

Matilda Carse

Fourteen years after women inaugurated the temperance crusade and organized the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the organization had no less than 43 separate and distinct lines of work. It need a national headquarters for its constituency, which numbered 200,000 women, besides 200,000 boys and girls in the Loyal Temperance Legions. Around 1883, the need of a national building and large income impressed itself upon Matilda Carse. With the co-operation of Frances Willard, Carse began planning for the erection of building in Chicago, to be known as the Temperance Temple. In pursuance of this long-contemplated plan, on the July 13, 1887, the Woman's Temperance Building Association (Association) was incorporated. Its purpose was to erect in Chicago a building as headquarters for the National WCTU, with a capital stock of $500,000 ; shares, $100 each. When the stock is all sold $300,000 worth of bonds, bearing 5 per cent interest, would be issued.

The local societies of the WCTU were asked to give US$500,000 towards this enterprise. There were 10,000 local unions in the U.S. at the time. If but one-half of these gave US$100 each, the Association would reach the desired half-million, which is the amount of the capital stock. In order, however, to give the unions sufficient time to raise this sum, the stock was to be sold to capitalists who were friendly to the cause, with the privilege of buying it back again within five years, with the understanding, also, that the dividends were not to exceed 5 per cent annually. It was hoped that at the end of five years, the desired US$500,000 will be raised by the unions, with which the corporation would buy up the entire capital stock for the National Society.

This building was projected to bring in a rental amounting, at the lowest calculation, to US$181,500 a year. With this money, the Association proposed to pay off the US$300,000 bonded debt. When the building was clear of debt, the National WCTU, having free headquarters, would also receive half the income from the rentals. The other half would go to the States. The States would receive a pro rata of this dividend in proportion to the amount they had given toward the building fund.

A board of trustees has been secured, which included men of national notability. On the board of directors were four men, some of them being among the largest capitalists of Chicago. Esther Pugh, our National WCTU treasurer, was the recipient of a steady stream of donations from all the States and Territories of the U.S., and from Europe, Japan, and India.

Construction costs were estimated to be US$800,000, for a building designed by John Wellborn Root.

The cornerstone of the Woman's Temple was laid with impressive ceremonies on November 1, 1890.

Standort

A valuable lot with a frontage on three streets was locataed at the southwest corner of LaSalle and Monroe streets, in the business portion of Chicago. A legal dispute arose between Marshall Field and his business partner, Mr. Letter, who owned property adjoining, and the work planned by Field was abandoned. The lot was fenced in for three or four years. The Woman's Temperance Building Association secured a 99 year lease of the property from Field.

The lot measured 166 feet (51 m) long by 100 feet (30 m) deep. The only way it could be secured is by a lease-hold title. The lease, however, was perpetual, and the charge for ground rent, US$35,000 a year, could never be increased.

Architecture and fittings

Women's Temple in Chicago, Illinois

The building was a combination of the old Gothic and the more modern French architecture styles. Little wood was used in the construction and the building was fireproof.

For the first two stories, the material used was gray granite with a dash of pink running through it. Above that was used pressed brick and terra cotta. This harmonized nicely with the granite, taking on a tone and color the same, with the exception that it is a darker pink. The frontage on La Salle Street was 190 feet (58 m), while on Monroe Street, it was 90 feet (27 m). In shape, the building was somewhat novel for its day, likened to the letter "H". It consisted of two immense wings united by a middle portion, or viaculum. On LaSalle Street was a court 70 feet (21 m) long and 30 feet (9.1 m) wide, and on Monroe Street, a simiilar one of the same length and 18 feet (5.5 m) deep.

Facing the "grand entrance" and arranged in a semi-circle were eight elevators, and from the front court rose two grand stairways leading clear to the top of the building. A central hall extended north and south on each floor and a transverse one also extended into the wings. The lower courts and halls were resplendent with marble mosaic paving, while plain marble was used in the upper halls.

In height, the temple was a skyscraper, extending thirteen stories. A pleasing effect was gained by causing the building line to retreat at the tenth story where the immense roof, containing three stories, commenced, breaking as it ascended, into gothic turrets. On the granite around the entrance were carved the coats of arms of the various States of the Union. Upon the corner stone was engraved the national legend of the WCTU, "For God, for Home and Native Land, 1890." On the reverse was the WCTU monogram and beneath, "organized 1874".

On the lower floor were located three banks and a memorial hall, known as Willard Hall, named in honor of Frances Willard. The audience room could seat 800 people without the galleries and was entirely shut off from the rest of the building as though it were not in it. The entrance was through a wide hall opening off Monroe Street. It was an amphitheatre in shape and in the center was a fountain. Nearly every window in it was a memorial one, and from numerous pedestals rose the busts of persons who had been involved in the cause of temperance.

The hall and the entrance leading to it were used as tablets on which to inscribe the names of those who subscribed the sum of US$100 or more to the building fund. A record of the work done in each State in the Union was kept in a large vault opening off the hall.

Tenants

The Woman's Temperance Publishing Association house was headquartered there, as well as the Central Chicago WCTU. Most of the building, however, was rented and the initial income from this source was US$25,000 a year.

References

Source attribution

• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Farmer, Lydia Hoyt (1893). The National Exposition Souvenir: What America Owes to Women (Public domain ed.). C. W. Moulton. p. 427.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Moulton. p. 811.

External links

• 1895 financial report by Matilda Carse, National Woman's Christian Temperance Union Twenty-Second Annual Meeting held in Music Hall, Baltimore, Maryland, October 18-23, 1895