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

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. The top of the building is at a height of 173 metres (568 feet).

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). Though not especially long, the river is notable because it is one of the reasons for ...

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 173-meter (568 foot) tall

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

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

congregation A congregation is a large gathering of people, often for the purpose of worship. Congregation may also refer to: *Church (congregation), a Christian organization meeting in a particular place for worship *Congregation (Roman Curia), an administra ...

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

religious Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...

and

office An office is a space where an Organization, organization's employees perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize objects and Goals, plans, action theory, goals of the organizati ...

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 (german: Ulmer Münster) is a Lutheran church located in Ulm, State of Baden-Württemberg (Germany). It is currently the tallest church in the world. The church is the fifth-tallest structure built before the 20th century, with a ...

in Ulm, Germany at 161.5 metres (530 feet) 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 ve ...

. 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 religi ...

to maintain the title over the

35 East Wacker __NOTOC__ 35 East Wacker, also known as the Jewelers' Building,"The Jewelers' Building ...

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

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

frame faced with limestone and is designed in the

neo-gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style by the firm of

Holabird & Roche The 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 to Art Deco to Modern ...

. 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 Charles Rudolph Walgreen Sr. (October 9, 1873 – December 11, 1939) was an American businessman who founded Walgreens. Background He was born in Dixon, Illinois, before moving to Galesburg, Illinois, at a young age. He was the son of Swedish ...

, 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. 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, 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 early 20th century for his involvement in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He was a leading member of t ...

, 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 in Illinois. The Center's modernist skyscraper primarily houses of ...

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% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 20 ...

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 Picasso'' "precipitated an aesthetic shift in civic and urban planning, broadening the idea of public ...

. 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. It is tall, and is made of steel, wire mesh, concrete, bronze, and ceramic tile. History In 1969 the Brunswick Corporation commissioned ...

'' by

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

occupies a courtyard between the Chicago Temple and the adjacent

George Dunne George W. Dunne (February 20, 1913 – May 28, 2006) was an American politician within the Democratic Party from Chicago, Illinois. He was President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners from 1969 to 1991; the longest service of anyone ...

Cook County Building.

References

External links

First United Methodist ChurchUnited Methodist Church - congregational entryEmporis: Chicago Temple BuildingSkyscraperPage
{{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