The Moose Temple is a historic

Loyal Order of Moose The Moose Fraternity (formerly The Loyal Order of Moose) is a fraternal and service organization founded in 1888 and headquartered in Mooseheart, Illinois. Moose International supports the operation of Mooseheart Child City & School, a ...

clubhouse in downtown

Fond du Lac, Wisconsin Fond du Lac () is a city in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the southern end of Lake Winnebago and had a population of 44,678 at the 2020 census. The city forms the core of the Fond du Lac met ...

completed in 1924. 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 ...

listed the structure, now known as the City Center Lofts, in 1993.

History

On June 9, 1910, 164 charter members founded Lodge No. 281 of the Loyal Order of Moose. Under the leadership of William S. Dhyr, the local group grew to 1,500 members and began planning for a dedicated clubhouse, raising $225,000 by 1923 . The original floorplan consisted of street-facing retail units on the first floor, club offices on the second floor, and a large meeting hall on the third floor and mezzanine. The building opened in 1924 but the Moose lost ownership in 1930 as a result of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. Subsequently, a number of different groups occupied the building. The

Fraternal Order of Eagles Fraternal Order of Eagles (F.O.E.) is a fraternal organization that was founded on February 6, 1898, in Seattle, Washington, by a group of six theater-owners including John Cort (impresario), John Cort (the first president), brothers John Considin ...

ran it as their own clubhouse from 1930 to 1941. Under the leadership of Lavelle Thompson Maze, the Fond du Lac Commercial College taught their classes there from 1941 to the mid-1950s. The school used the large auditorium for "Open Forum" classes where the students taught subjects they selected. The A.C. Nielsen Co. converted the interior of the building into office space in 1957, but vacated in the early 1980s when they moved around the block to 30 South Main Street. The property then sat vacant until a restoration and

adaptive reuse Adaptive reuse is the reuse of an existing building for a purpose other than that for which it was originally built or designed. It is also known as recycling and conversion. The adaptive reuse of buildings can be a viable alternative to new con ...

in 1988 converted the upper floors to apartments. Flanagan State Bank and

Thrivent Thrivent Financial for Lutherans (marketing name Thrivent) ( ), is an American Fortune 500 not-for-profit financial services organization headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Appleton, Wisconsin, and founded by Lutherans. As a member-own ...

later moved into the first-floor offices.

Architecture

Local architect Frank Stepnoski (1881-1952) planned the 1924 clubhouse as one of his first major commissions. His design consists of three stories topped with a

mezzanine A mezzanine (; or in Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft with non-sloped ...

using steel, reinforced concrete, and brick, with a

Classical Revival Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassic ...

style. The front of the building faces Forest Avenue and consists of five

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

separated by four brick

pilasters In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

. The first floor has four storefront windows and the main entrance, which is on the right with a stone surround. As the building goes up, the windows become progressively smaller ending in three lunette windows on the top floor. Horizontally, a narrow stone

stringcourse A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the f ...

runs above the top windows and wide

cornices In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

run above the first floor and under the roof. The side façade along Macy Street contains similar but less detailed finishes while the opposite side originally faced an alley, so it consists of simple brick. A number of changes were made to the exterior of the building over the years. When a parking garage replaced the original building behind the temple, an unfinished

party wall A party wall (occasionally parti-wall or parting wall, shared wall, also known as common wall or as a demising wall) is a wall shared by two adjoining properties. Typically, the builder lays the wall along a property line dividing two terraced h ...

was revealed which was resurfaced in new brick. A

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

on the roof originally held a concrete moose head. The store doors and entrances are now plate glass windows. The 1988 renovations included adding a four-story elevator and utility tower on the back.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin

Fond du Lac, Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin Neoclassical architecture in Wisconsin Apartment buildings in Wisconsin Apartment buildings on the National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures completed in 1924 1924 establishments in Wisconsin

History

Architecture

See also

References