 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "First United Methodist Church of Chicago" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(September 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple is a church located at the base and in the top floors of theChicago Temple Building, askyscraper inChicago, Illinois. The top of the building is at a height of 568 feet (173 m).
The congregation was founded in 1831 and built a log cabin on the north bank of theChicago River in 1834. In 1838, it moved the cabin across the river to the corner of Washington and Clark Streets.[1] The current structure was completed after a debate within the congregation whether the church should remain in central Chicago or sell its valuable property and relocate to the growing suburban areas.[2]
| Chicago Temple Building | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Interactive map of Chicago Temple Building | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Chicago school,Gothic Revival architecture (tower) |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Coordinates | 41°52′59″N87°37′50″W / 41.8830°N 87.6306°W /41.8830; -87.6306 |
| Construction started | 1923 |
| Completed | 1924 |
| Height | |
| Roof | 568 ft (173 m) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 23 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Holabird & Roche |
TheChicago Temple Building is a 568-foot (173 m) tallskyscraperchurch located at 77 W. Washington Street in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is home to thecongregation of the First United Methodist Church of Chicago. It was completed in 1924 and has 23 floors dedicated toreligious andoffice use. It is by one measure the tallest church building in the world based on the distance from the church's street level entrance to the top of the church's spire or steeple. Although by stipulating that a church building's usage be entirely or almost entirely devoted to religious purposes, then, by that standard, Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia is the tallest church in the world.
It was the tallest building in Chicago from 1924 until 1930, when it was surpassed by theChicago Board of Trade Building. This claim included the height of thesteeple to maintain the title over the35 East Wacker Building which opened in 1927.[3][failed verification][4][failed verification]
The building is constructed on asteel frame faced with limestone and is designed in theneo-Gothic style by the firm ofHolabird & Roche. During planning and construction, the building was calledCity Temple, however by the time of completion, the name was changed toChicago Temple.[1]
The building houses three sanctuaries:
The Sky Chapel was created in 1952 as a gift from theWalgreen family in memory ofCharles Walgreen, the founder of the eponymous pharmacy chain.[2] At 400 ft (120 m) above ground level, it is considered the world's highest worship space and contains 16 stained glass windows. Four depict scenes from the Old Testament, four from the life of Jesus, four represent the history of the Christian Church in the Old World, and the final four the church in the New World.[5] The carved wood altar-front depicts Jesus looking over the city of Chicago (specifically a view from the top of the church building in 1952), mirroring the front of the sanctuary altar, which shows Jesus looking over Jerusalem.
The Chicago Temple is home to anE.M. Skinner organ, Opus 414, which contains 5,589 pipes across seven divisions, four manuals, 73 stops, 93 registers and 92 ranks, and was designed to fit the sanctuary.[6] It was completed in 1923 and was the gift of banker Albert Harris.[6] To mark the centennial of the building, a $3.25 million fundraising campaign seeks to restore Opus 414 to full working order.[7]
Floors 4 through 21 of the building are rented office space with one residential area which is used by the Methodist church's senior pastor as aparsonage, occupying the three floors of the spire, just below the Sky Chapel. The sixth floor of the building once held the office ofClarence Darrow, the famous trial attorney.
A fictionalized version of the building is one of the settings inCharles Merrill Smith'sFather Randollph detective series, where the title character is the senior pastor resident in the skyscraper's parsonage.
The temple is located at the southeast corner of Clark and Washington Street across from theRichard J. Daley Center which houses offices for the offices for the city of Chicago andCook County courts and theChicago Picasso. Due to its proximity to the Cook County and US District Courts, the majority of the building's tenants are attorney's firms. TheNorthern Illinois Conference and the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women are also tenants. A sculpture entitledMiró's Chicago byJoan Miró occupies a courtyard between the Chicago Temple and the adjacentCook County Administration Building
| Records | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Tallest building in the United States outside of New York City 1924–1927 173 m | Succeeded by |
