Temperance Temple (also known as Women's Temple or Woman's Temple) served as the headquarters of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). It was located in Chicago, Illinois at the southwest corner of LaSalle Street and Monroe Street, in the center of city's financial district. Work was begun in July, 1890, and the building was ready for occupancy in May 1892.[1] The lot was valued at US$1,000,000; 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 Temple Building Association of Chicago (TBAC), and it was expected all would be secured to that association.[2][3] The TBAC, a stock company with Marshall Field president of the board of trustees, owned The Temple, the third of the affiliated interests of the National WCTU. The office building was erected at a cost of US$1,200,000 on ground leased to the TBAC by Field.[4] Temperance Temple was demolished in 1926.
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 TBAC was incorporated. Its purpose was to erect in Chicago a building as headquarters for the National WCTU, with a capital stock of US$500,000; shares, US$100 each. When the stock is all sold US$300,000 worth of bonds, bearing 5 per cent interest, would be issued.[5]
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.[5]
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.[5] Construction costs were estimated to be US$800,000.[5][1]
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.[5]
The building was designed by John Wellborn Root.[8] Its cornerstone was laid with impressive ceremonies on November 1, 1890.[9] 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 US$25,000 a year.[1]
The heavy yearly ground rental —US$40,000— was each year the first financial obligation to be met from Temple rental receipts. Carse, a member of the board of trustees and president of the Central WCTU of Chicago, was the chief promoter of plans for its ownership by the WCTU. The untiring but vain endeavor of the National WCTU towards such ownership covered a period of eleven years. Willard Hall was the soul of the Temple Building. The strength of its appeal to Frances Willard and the active workers of that decade cannot be overestimated. Daily, it was the scene of a noontide gospel temperance meeting, which perpetuated the old Farwell Hall daily prayer service of the early years of the Chicago WCTU.[4]
Following Willard's death in February, 1898, her successor to the presidency of the National WCTU, Lillian M. N. Stevens, with her co-officers and members of the Official Board made every possible effort to carry to successful completion certain plans adopted at the Buffalo, New York, convention in 1897. This program featured an endeavor to raise US$300,000 to pay off the purchasers of Temple Trust Bonds, issued by Carse "as an individual for and on behalf of the National WCTU."[4]
It became necessary to call a meeting of the National Executive Committee to discuss the Temple situation. This meeting was held in Chicago, July 15, 1898. After two days of discussion, a resolution to be recommended to the national convention was adopted, providing that all effort on the part of the National WCTU to own the Temple Building should be discontinued. "While not legally bound," the resolution stated, "we regard it as a sacred trust to purchase before the next convention the US$300,000 worth of Temple Trust Bonds issued by the promoters of The Temple enterprise." At the National WCTU convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a few months later, after prolonged and dispassionate discussion, these recommendations were adopted and The Temple as an affiliated interest was discontinued. Many of the Temple Trust Bonds held by needy individuals were retired, but, much to the regret of the committee in charge, it proved impossible to raise the entire amount of US$300,000.[4]
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.[1] The Woman's Temperance Building Association secured a 99 year lease of the property from Field.[5]
The lot measured 166 feet (51m) long by 100 feet (30m) 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, US$35,000 a year, could never be increased.[5]
Architecture and fittings
Women's Temple
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.[1]
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 (58m), while on Monroe Street, it was 90 feet (27m). 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 (21m) long and 30 feet (9.1m) wide, and on Monroe Street, a simiilar one of the same length and 18 feet (5.5m) deep.[1]
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 marblemosaic paving, while plain marble was used in the upper halls.[1]
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".[1]
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.[1]
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.[1]
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far-reaching reform strategies based on applied Christianity." It plays an influential role in the temperance movement. Originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement, the organization supported the 18th Amendment and was also influential in social reform issues that came to prominence in the progressive era.
Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard was an American educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist. Willard became the national president of Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1879 and remained president until her death in 1898. Her influence continued in the next decades, as the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution were adopted. Willard developed the slogan "Do Everything" for the WCTU and encouraged members to engage in a broad array of social reforms by lobbying, petitioning, preaching, publishing, and education.
Matilda B. Carse was an Irish-born American businesswoman, social reformer, publisher, and leader of the temperance movement. With Frances E. Willard and Lady Henry Somerset, Carse helped to found the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).
The Woman's Temperance Publishing Association (WTPA) was a non-commercial publisher of temperance literature. Established in 1879 in Indianapolis, Indiana during the national convention of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), it was a concept of Matilda Carse, an Irish-born American businesswoman, social reformer and leader of the temperance movement.
Julia A. Ames was an American journalist, editor and temperance reformer. She served as associate editor of the Woman's Temperance Publishing Association's Union Signal. Ames died in 1891 at the age of 30. The year after her death, the journalist and spiritualist W. T. Stead published automatic writing which was said to have been sent by Ames to her friend. Stead also created "Julie's Bureau" to allow others to communicate with the dead.
Esther Pugh was an American temperance reformer of the long nineteenth century. She served as Treasurer of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), a Trustee of Earlham College, as well as editor and publisher of the monthly temperance journal, Our Union.
Mary Grace Edholm was an American reformer and journalist. She worked as a journalist for twenty years.
Caroline Brown Buell was an American activist who lectured and wrote on behalf of temperance and suffrage. She served as the assistant recording secretary (1878–80), corresponding secretary (1880–93), and a member of the Our Union publication committee (1876–83) of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU); as well as the president (1904) and corresponding secretary (1875–86) of the Connecticut WCTU. She also originated the plan of the Loyal Temperance Legion, the children's society of the WCTU. Buell wrote extensively for temperance publications, and other papers and magazines. She made her home in East Hampton, Connecticut.
Emma A. Cranmer was an American temperance reformer, woman suffragist, and author. A talented suffrage speaker and prohibition representative, she served as president of the South Dakota Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the South Dakota Equal Suffrage Association. Some of her epigrams were published by the press. Cranmer died in 1937.
Frances Julia Barnes was an American temperance reformer. She served as General Secretary of the Young Woman's Branch of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).
Clara Cleghorn Hoffman was an American educator and temperance reformer. She became identified with the white-ribbon movement in Kansas City, Missouri, giving up her position as principal of a school to enter the work of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). She served as President of the Missouri WCTU for 25 years. Within the National WCTU, she lectured across the U.S, was chosen Assistant Recording Secretary, and Recording Secretary, succeeding Lillian M. N. Stevens.
Eliza Buckley Ingalls was an American temperance activist. Active in local and national activities of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), Ingalls served as President of the St. Louis WCTU for 27 years (1891-1918); and as Superintendent of the National WCTU's Anti-Narcotics Department for 10 years.
Margaret E. Winslow (1836-1936) was an American activist, newspaper editor, and author of several temperance books. She served at two separate times, and during the longest period of any editor-in-chief of Our Union, the national organ of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). It was a burst of inspiration from Winslow, relative to its simplicity and purity, which at the National WCTU Convention in Chicago determined the union to wear the white ribbon as a badge rather than the red, white, and blue which was strongly urged by many.
Ellen A. Dayton Blair was an American social reformer and art teacher.
Anna M. Hammer was an American philanthropist and temperance movement leader. For years, she was prominently identified with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), principally in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and for a long time, served as president of the WCTU in the latter state.
The Union Signal is a defunct American newspaper. It was the organ of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, at one time, the largest women's organization in the United States.
Susanna M. D. Fry was an American educator and temperance worker. Her teaching career began in the primary department of the village school, but her superior ability as a teacher led her swiftly into positions of greater responsibility. Fry was a professor who held the chair of English literature at Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois and at the University of Minnesota. She served as president of the Minnesota Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.), and managing editor of The Union Signal, the organ of the National W.C.T.U. During her career as a professor and as an official of the W.C.T.U., Fry was a frequent speaker in Prohibition campaigns and at temperance conventions. Fry was the only woman chosen from the Methodist church to speak before the Parliament of the World's Religions, 1893.
Caroline M. Clark Woodward was an American temperance activist, who entered the field in 1882 as a temperance writer. She was affiliated with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) in Nebraska, and served as a trustee of the Woman's Temperance Temple in Chicago. Woodward received Prohibition Party nominations for Regent of the Nebraska University and for member of Congress. A forcible speaker, she conducted schools of "Methods" at Chautauqua Assemblies.
Jane Agnes Stewart was an American author, editor, and contributor to periodicals. She was a special writer for many journals on subjects related to woman's, religious, educational, sociological, and reform movements. Stewart was a suffragist and temperance activist. She traveled to London, Edinburgh, and Paris as a delegate of world's reform and religious conventions.
Ruby Irene Gilbert was an American business woman associated for 70 years with the white ribbon movement, particularly the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 International Council of Women (1888). "THE TEMPERANCE TEMPLE. Mrs. Carse.". Report of the International Council of Women: Assembled by the National Woman Suffrage Association, Washington, D.C., U.S. of America, March 25 to April 1, 1888. Vol.1. R. H. Darby, printer. pp.125–27. Retrieved 24 July 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
↑ "LAST EDITION. TEMPLE AND FUNDS". Chicago Tribune. 25 February 1893. pp.1–2. Retrieved 5 August 2022– via Newspapers.com. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
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
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