Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Masonic Temple (Chicago)

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Location
  
Chicago, United States

Demolished
  
1939

Floor count
  
21

Floors
  
21

Destruction date
  
1939

Architect
  
Daniel Burnham

Completed
  
1892

Roof
  
302 ft (92 m)

Height
  
92 m

Opened
  
1892

Construction started
  
1891

Masonic Temple (Chicago) Masonic Temple

Similar
  
Montauk Building, Heyworth Building, New York Life Insurance, Brooks Building, Peoples Gas Building

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.

Masonic Temple (Chicago) Masonic Temple WTTW Chicago Public Media Television and Interactive

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.

Masonic Temple (Chicago) POSTCARD CHICAGO MASONIC TEMPLE AERIAL EARLY CHUCKMAN39S

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.

Masonic Temple (Chicago) Masonic Temple

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

Masonic Temple (Chicago) httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu
Masonic Temple (Chicago) Masonic Temple

References

Masonic Temple (Chicago) Wikipedia