Temperance Temple (Chicago)

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 needed a national headquarters for its constituency, which numbered 200,000 women, in addition to another 200,000 boys and girls in the Loyal Temperance Legions. Around 1883, the need for a national building and large income impressed itself upon Matilda Carse. With the cooperation of Frances Willard, Carse began planning for the erection of a building in Chicago to be known as the Temperance Temple. In pursuance of this long-contemplated plan, on July 13, 1887, the TBAC was incorporated. Its purpose was to erect in Chicago a building as headquarters for the National WCTU, with a capital stock of ; shares, each. When the stock was all sold worth of bonds, bearing 5 percent interest, would be issued. The local societies of the WCTU were asked to give towards this enterprise. There were 10,000 local unions in the U.S. at the time. If but one-half of these gave 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 percent annually. It was hoped that at the end of five years, the desired would be raised by the unions, with which the corporation would buy up the entire capital stock for the National Society. and Caroline M. Clark Woodward. Esther Pugh, 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. Its cornerstone was laid with impressive ceremonies on November 1, 1890. Root died in 1891, and the building was ready for occupancy in May 1892. The Woman's Temperance Publishing Association house was headquartered in the building, as well as the Central Chicago WCTU. Most of the building, however, was rented and the initial income from this source was a year. ==Location==

A valuable lot with a frontage on three streets was located 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, Levi Leiter, who owned property adjoining, and the work planned by Field was abandoned, the lot 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 long by deep. The only way it could be secured was by a lease-hold title. The lease, however, was perpetual, and the charge for ground rent, a year, could never be increased. ==Architecture and fittings==

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 , while on Monroe Street, it was . 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 long and wide, and on Monroe Street, a similar one of the same length and 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 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. ==Notable people==

• Helen Morton Barker • Matilda Carse • Ellen Louise Demorest • Marion Howard Dunham • Susan Fessenden • Marshall Field • Clara Cleghorn Hoffman • Helen Louise Hood • Harriet B. Kells • Mary Torrans Lathrap • Mrs. W. H. Munnell • Esther Pugh • John Wellborn Root • Lady Henry Somerset • Lillian M. N. Stevens • Frances Willard • Caroline M. Clark Woodward ==References==