The Masonic Temple Building (also known as the Scoville Block, Gilmore's Store, and Scoville Square Building) is a historic Prairie-style building in

Oak Park, Illinois Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, adjacent to Chicago. It is the List of municipalities in Illinois, 26th-most populous municipality in Illinois, with a population of 54,318 as of the 2020 census. Oak Park was first se ...

, at the corner of Oak Park Avenue and Lake Street. It is in the Ridgeland-Oak Park Historic District and was individually listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1982. The building is one of only a few commercial buildings built in the Prairie School architectural style. The three-story building was built for C. B. Scoville to a design by E. E. Roberts and was constructed between 1906 and 1909. The first floor was designed for retail use, with iron and glass

storefront A storefront or shopfront is the facade or entryway of a retail store located on the ground floor or street level of a commercial building, typically including one or more display windows. A storefront functions to attract visual attention to a b ...

s. A course of limestone separates the storefronts from the upper stories, which are faced with brick. A fourth story was added in 1914. Architectural details in the interior include an oak staircase and a

lobby Lobby may refer to: * Lobby (room), an entranceway or foyer in a building * Lobbying, the action or the group used to influence a viewpoint to politicians * Lobby (food), a thick stew made in Leigh, Greater Manchester and North Staffordshire, like ...

with

leaded Tetraethyllead (commonly styled tetraethyl lead), abbreviated TEL, is an organolead compound with the formula Pb( C2H5)4. It was widely used as a fuel additive for much of the 20th century, first being mixed with gasoline beginning in the 1920 ...

art-glass windows and marble

wainscoting Panelling (or paneling in the United States) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials. Panelling was developed in antiquity t ...

. Oak Park's

Masonic lodge A Masonic lodge (also called Freemasons' lodge, or private lodge or constituent lodge) is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also a commonly used term for a building where Freemasons meet and hold their meetings. Every new l ...

s were among the building's first tenants. After the Masons vacated the premises, the building was sold to Gilmore's Department Store. The

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

used the building from 1930 until it closed in the 1970s. After Gilmore's department store closed, the village of Oak Park bought the building to save it from demolition and contributed public money toward its restoration and renovation. Restoration work including removal of a black glass facade that Gilmore's had applied to the building. The building is now known as the Scoville Square building and houses retail business on the ground floor and offices on its upper floors.

References

External links

Scoville Square, Oak Park
Designslinger.com {{Oak Park, Illinois , state=expanded Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Cook County, Illinois Prairie School architecture in Illinois Commercial buildings completed in 1909 Oak Park, Illinois Former Masonic buildings in Illinois Ridgeland-Oak Park Historic District

See also

References

External links