First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple is a church located at the base and in the top floors of the Chicago Temple Building, a

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. The top of the building is at a height of .

History

The congregation was founded in 1831 and built a log cabin on the north bank of the

Chicago River The Chicago River is a system of rivers and canals with a combined length of that runs through the city of Chicago, including its center (the Chicago Loop). The river is one of the reasons for Chicago's geographic importance: the related Chic ...

in 1834. In 1838, it moved the cabin across the river to the corner of Washington and Clark Streets. 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.

Chicago Temple Building

The Chicago Temple Building is a tall

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

located at 77 W. Washington Street in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is home to the

congregation Congregation may refer to: Religion *Church (congregation), a religious organization that meets in a particular location *Congregation (Roman Curia), an administrative body of the Catholic Church *Religious congregation, a type of religious instit ...

of the First United Methodist Church of Chicago. It was completed in 1924 and has 23 floors dedicated to

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

and

office An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a po ...

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,

Ulm Minster Ulm Minster () is a Gothic Architecture, Gothic church (building), church located in Ulm, State of Baden-Württemberg (Germany). It was originally built as a Roman Catholic church (building), church but became a Lutheran Church in the 16th Cen ...

in Ulm, Germany at in height is the tallest church in the world. It was the tallest building in Chicago from 1924 until 1930, when it was surpassed by the

Chicago Board of Trade Building The Chicago Board of Trade Building is a 44-story, Art Deco skyscraper located in the Chicago Loop, standing at the foot of the LaSalle Street canyon. Built in 1930 for the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), it has served as the primary trading v ...

. This claim included the height of the

steeple In architecture, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, topped by a spire and often incorporating a belfry and other components. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a relig ...

to maintain the title over the

35 East Wacker 35 East Wacker, also known as the Jewelers' Building, is a 40-story historic building in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States, located at the intersection of Wabash Avenue and East Wacker Drive, facing the Chicago Riv ...

Building which opened in 1927. The building is constructed on a

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

frame faced with limestone and is designed in the

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

style by the firm of

Holabird & Roche The architect, architectural firm now known as Holabird & Root was founded in Chicago in 1880. Over the years, the firm has changed its name several times and adapted to the architectural style then current — from Chicago school (architectu ...

. During planning and construction, the building was called ''City Temple'', however by the time of completion, the name was changed to ''Chicago Temple''. The building houses three sanctuaries: * Sanctuary 1 is four stories tall on the ground floor with seating available for 1,000 people. * Sanctuary 2 is also known as the "Dixon Chapel" and is on the second floor. * Sanctuary 3 also known as the "Sky Chapel" is the smallest sanctuary and is situated at the base of the steeple with seating for 30 people. The Sky Chapel was created in 1952 as a gift from the Walgreen family in memory of Charles Walgreen, the founder of the eponymous pharmacy chain. At 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. 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 an

E.M. Skinner Ernest Martin Skinner (January 15, 1866 – November 26 or November 27, 1960) was an American pipe organ builder whose innovations in electro-pneumatic switching systems are credited with significantly influencing organ-building technology in th ...

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. It was completed in 1923 and was the gift of banker Albert Harris. To mark the centennial of the building, a $3.25 million fundraising campaign seeks to restore Opus 414 to full working order. 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 a

parsonage A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, pa ...

, occupying the three floors of the spire, just below the Sky Chapel. The sixth floor of the building once held the office of

Clarence Darrow Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the 19th century for high-profile representations of trade union causes, and in the 20th century for several criminal matters, including the ...

, the famous trial attorney. A fictionalized version of the building is one of the settings in Charles Merrill Smith's ''Father 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 the

Richard J. Daley Center The Richard J. Daley Center, also known by its open courtyard Daley Plaza and named after longtime mayor Richard J. Daley, is the premier civic center of the city of Chicago, Illinois. The Center's modernist skyscraper primarily houses offic ...

which houses offices for the offices for the city of Chicago and

Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40 percent of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. ...

courts and the

Chicago Picasso The Chicago Picasso (often just ''The Picasso'') is an untitled monumental sculpture by Pablo Picasso in Daley Plaza in Chicago, Illinois. The 1967 installation of ''The Picasso'', "precipitated an aesthetic shift in civic and urban planning, br ...

. Due to its proximity to the Cook County and US District Courts, the majority of the building's tenants are attorney's firms. The Northern Illinois Conference and the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women are also tenants. A sculpture entitled ''

Miró's Chicago ''Miró's Chicago'' (originally called ''The Sun, the Moon and One Star'') is a sculpture by Joan Miró in Brunswick Plaza, Chicago, United States. It is tall, and is made of steel, wire mesh, concrete, bronze, and ceramic tile. History In ...

'' by

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , ; ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan Spanish painter, sculptor and Ceramic art, ceramist. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona ...

occupies a courtyard between the Chicago Temple and the adjacent George Dunne Cook County Building.

References

External links

First United Methodist ChurchUnited Methodist Church - congregational entry
*
SkyscraperPageThe "Mother Church of Chicago Methodism": 100 years of the Chicago Temple Building
{{Buildings in Chicago timeline United Methodist churches in Illinois Methodist cathedrals in the United States Churches in Chicago Temple Building, Chicago Churches completed in 1924 Office buildings completed in 1924 Projects by Holabird & Root Skyscrapers in Chicago Gothic Revival skyscrapers Chicago school architecture in Illinois 1924 establishments in Illinois

History

Chicago Temple Building

See also

References

External links