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Woman's Temple

Woman's Temple

John Wellborn Root

Burnham and Root

Photo: Photographer not named. · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Chicago, IL
Client / Owner
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
Year
Completed 1892 · Demolished 1926
Access
Demolished
Typology
Commercial

A 13-story office tower at the corner of LaSalle and Monroe Streets, built as the national headquarters of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The Temple Building Association was incorporated in 1887 to raise the money, the cornerstone was laid in 1890, and the building opened in 1892.

John Wellborn Root of Burnham and Root designed it, but he died in 1891 and never saw it finished. His design blended Gothic and French influences over a modern steel-and-masonry office building, and much of the space was rented to tenants to help pay for it.

The WCTU gave up its effort to own the building in 1898, and the Temple was demolished in 1926. It was among the last buildings John Root designed in a career cut short at age 41.

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