Masonic Temple (Chicago)

Masonic Temple Building

Record height
Tallest in Chicago from 1895 to 1899^[I]
General information
Location	Chicago, United States
Coordinates	41°53′05.28″N 87°37′39.27″W / 41.8848000°N 87.6275750°W / 41.8848000; -87.6275750Coordinates: 41°53′05.28″N 87°37′39.27″W / 41.8848000°N 87.6275750°W / 41.8848000; -87.6275750
Construction started	1891
Completed	1892
Demolished	1939
Height
Roof	302 ft (92 m)
Technical details
Floor count	21
References
^[1]

The Masonic Temple Building was a skyscraper built in Chicago, Illinois in 1892. Designed by the firm of Burnham and Root and built at the northeast corner of Randolph and State Streets, the building rose 21 stories. When the clock tower was removed from the 1885 Board of Trade Building in 1895, the Masonic Temple became the tallest in the city.

The building featured a central court ringed by nine floors of shops with offices above and meeting rooms for the Masons at the very top. These meeting rooms also served as theaters, which contributed to the building's obsolescence; its elevators proved inadequate for these crowds, and the building rapidly fell from favor with commercial tenants.

Chicago's building height regulations enacted in 1892 (the year the Temple was built), didn't allow taller buildings, until that was amended in the 1920s. In 1939 the Masonic Temple was demolished, in part due to its poor internal services, but also due to the construction of the new State Street subway, which would have necessitated expensive foundation retrofitting. A two-story "taxpayer" housing a Walgreens drug store was erected in its place, and the Joffrey Tower currently stands on the former site of this building.

Both the building's primary designer, John Wellborn Root, and the Masons' primary representative, Norman Gassette, died of natural causes during its construction.

Gallery

About 1900: Stereoscopy as postcard No. 530 by Knackstedt & Näther (Hamburg)
Masonic Temple, 1900
Masonic Temple with new Marshall Field and Company Building, 1911

References

↑ Masonic Temple (Chicago) at Emporis

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Masonic Temple (Chicago, Illinois).

World's Tallest Skyscrapers
A City Under One Roof—The Masonic Temple, Chicago – Scientific American, February 10, 1894.

Chicago Landmark skyscrapers

National Historic Landmark, National Register of Historic Places, Chicago Landmark	The Arc at Old Colony Auditorium Building Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building Chicago Board of Trade Building Fisher Building Manhattan Building Marquette Building Marshall Field and Company Building Monadnock Building Reliance Building Rookery Building

National Register of Historic Places, Chicago Landmark	860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments Gage Group Buildings Mundelein College Skyscraper Building One North LaSalle Palmolive Building Renaissance Blackstone Hotel Roanoke Building and Tower

Chicago Landmark	330 North Wabash 333 North Michigan 35 East Wacker Allerton Hotel Brooks Building Bryn Mawr Apartment Hotel Carbide & Carbon Building Chicago Building Civic Opera House Heyworth Building Inland Steel Building London Guarantee Building Mather Tower New York Life Insurance Building The Palmer House Hilton Powhatan Apartments Pittsfield Building Richard J. Daley Center Tribune Tower Virgin Hotels Chicago

See also	Washington Block

Apartments Culture Education Historic districts Houses Memorials and monuments Municipal Places of worship Skyscrapers Transportation

Chicago Skyscrapers

Tallest towers	Aon Center Franklin Center John Hancock Center Trump International Hotel and Tower Two Prudential Plaza Willis Tower

Selected towers with 20 or more floors	35 East Wacker 55 East Erie Street 77 West Wacker Drive 111 South Wacker Drive 155 North Wacker 181 West Madison Street 311 South Wacker Drive 330 North Wabash 333 North Michigan 333 Wacker Drive 340 on the Park 401 East Ontario 500 West Madison 860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments 900 North Michigan 1700 East 56th Street ABN AMRO Plaza Allerton Hotel Aqua Bilandic Building Blackstone Hotel Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower Boeing International Headquarters Carbide & Carbon Building The Chandler Chase Tower Chicago Board of Trade Building Chicago Place Chicago Temple Building City Hall Square Building Civic Opera House Coast at Lakeshore East CNA Center Crain Communications Building Dirksen Federal Building Field Building Fisher Building FOUR40 Four Seasons Hotel Chicago Grant Thornton Tower Harbor Point Hilton Chicago Home Insurance Building Hyatt Center James R. Thompson Center Joffrey Tower Kluczynski Federal Building Lake Point Tower The Lancaster LaSalle-Wacker Building Legacy Tower Leo Burnett Building London Guarantee Building Marina City Masonic Temple Mather Tower Metropolitan Tower Montauk Building NBC Tower Olympia Centre One Magnificent Mile One Museum Park One North LaSalle One North Wacker One Prudential Plaza Outer Drive East Palmer House Hotel Palmolive Building Park Tower The Parkshore Peoples Gas Building Pittsfield Building Plaza 440 Powhatan Apartments The Regatta Regents Park Richard J. Daley Center River East Center Roanoke Building and Tower The Shoreham Skybridge The Buckingham The Fordham The Heritage at Millennium Park The Grant The Pinnacle Three First National Plaza The Tides Time-Life Building Tribune Tower Virgin Hotels Chicago Waldorf Astoria Chicago Water Tower Place Wrigley Building

Chicago Landmark skyscrapers with 12 or more floors	300 West Adams Building The Arc at Old Colony Auditorium Building Brooks Building Bryn Mawr Apartment Hotel Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building Chicago Building Gage Group Buildings Heyworth Building Hilliard Towers Apartments Inland Steel Building Manhattan Building Marquette Building Marshall Field and Company Building Monadnock Building Mundelein College Skyscraper Building New York Life Insurance Building Reliance Building Rookery Building

See also	Architecture Art Deco Chicago City Hall Chicago School Tallest buildings Washington Block

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Masonic Temple (Chicago)

Gallery

See also

References

External links