Walking through the center of Chicago, let's remember that the appearance of our city could be Completely different.

The Masonic Temple building, designed by Burnham and Root, was built in Chicago in 1892. Standing on the corner of Randolph Street and State Street, the skyscraper had 21 floors. Three years later, the Masonic Temple building became the tallest in the city when the clock tower on the Chicago Board of Trade building was removed.

The Masonic Temple became the first building in Chicago to rise above 300 feet.

The building included an enclosed area, surrounded by nine floors of shops and offices. Conference rooms for masons were on the upper floors. These conference rooms also served as theaters, which contributed to the rapid deterioration of the building: its elevators were not reliable enough to transport the number of people required.

The building quickly lost its commercial appeal to tenants.

In 1892, the same year the temple was built, the rules adopted in Chicago regulating the height of buildings did not allow buildings to be any taller. The Masonic Temple was the tallest building in the city from 1895 to the mid-1920s, when the rules were changed.

John Wellborn Root, chief building designer, and Norman Gassette, the Freemason representative, both died of natural causes during the construction of the Temple.

The American architect John Wellborn Root was born in 1850. He worked mainly in Chicago and designed buildings that became Chicago landmarks listed on the National Register of Historic Places, two of which have been recognized as National Historic Landmarks. He is considered one of the founders of the Chicago School style of architecture. He passed away in 1891. In 1958, posthumously, he was recognized with the AIA (American Institute of Architects) Gold Medal.

On January 10, 1850, Root was born to Sydney Ruta, a planter, and his wife, Mary Harvey Clark. Root was named after his maternal uncle, Marshall Johnson Wellborn. Born in Lampkin, Georgia, Root was educated at home and grew up in Atlanta. When the city became active in the American Civil War on the side of the Union, Root's father sent him and two brothers to Liverpool, England, where there was a family shipping business. Meanwhile, his sister and mother also left Atlanta and went to Cuthbert, Georgia.

Root studied at Clare Mount School in Liverpool. Liverpool architect Peter Ellis may have influenced Root's later works. Ellis was known for innovative projects of the era such as Oriel Chambers in 1864, and 16 Cook Street in 1866, two of the world's first metal-framed buildings with glass curtain walls.

When Root returned to the U.S., he attended New York University and received a bachelor's degree in 1869. He continued learning on the job, working for no pay, with architect James Renwick Jr. of Renwick and Sands from New York. Then, he worked with architect John Butler Snook in New York.

Root moved to Chicago in 1871. There, he worked in an architectural firm as a draftsman and met Daniel Burnham. They founded the company Burnham and Root in 1873, and collaborated for the next 18 years. When the economy faltered in 1873, Root supplemented his income by working for other companies, and as an organist in the First Presbyterian Church.

In 1879, Root married, but his wife Mary Louise Walker died of tuberculosis just six weeks later.

He then married Dora Louise Monroe, sister of Harriet Monroe, in 1882.

In these difficult years, Root created an innovative system of interlaced steel beams, which served as the foundation for tall buildings so that they could overcome Chicago's swampy soil.

Root first utilized this revolutionary construction method in 1882, with the Montauk building. Later, inspired by the Home Insurance Building by architect William Lebaron Jenney built in 1885, he imitated it in 1887 with the Phenix Building, where he applied the steel frame concept to the vertical load-bearing walls.

Feeling pressure from East Coast architects, Root, along with Burnham, Dunkmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, formed the Western Association of Architects. In 1886, Root became president of this association and the next year, he was elected as director of the National American Institute of Architects. The buildings he designed and built during this fruitful period of his life, were subsequently widely recognized as his best works. They were recognized as national historical sites, entered into the National Register of Historic Places, and added to the list of Chicago sites.

The World Columbia Exposition in Chicago was scheduled for 1893, and he helped with the plans, but never saw them built. In 1891, at the age of 41, he died of pneumonia and was buried in Graceland Cemetery in the upper part of the city.

He was survived by two daughters and a son, John Wellborn Root Jr., who also became an architect practicing in Chicago.

Root's sister-in-law, Harriet Monroe, wrote his detailed biography: John Wellborn Root: A Study of His Life and Works (1896).

After his death, Burnham's firm made a stylistic change. It designed buildings in the Greek and Roman style and shifted towards classicism.

In 1939, the Masonic Temple was demolished, due to several factors. The interior had been poorly maintained, and its offices and shops were considered obsolete. At the time, construction of a new subway on State Street, would have required expensive reconstruction to the foundation of the building. In its place, there is now a two-story building which houses a Walgreens pharmacy. Currently, the site of the famous Masonic Temple is the Joffrey Tower.

Norman Theodore Gasset

(April 21, 1839-March 26, 1891)

American sports official, politician, and baseball executive Norman Theodore Gasset was president of Chicago White Stockings from 1870 to 1871. During that time, he was also a clerk in the Cook County District Court (from 1868 to 1872). Gasset is also known as a master freemason; he joined the Masonic order in 1864. Towards the end of his life, he became a representative of the Masons during the construction of the Masonic Temple building in Chicago. In Illinois, he received the post of Supreme Commander.