A recent acquisition struck in 1892:



It is always best to start the New Year with some new resolutions (or not!). The Women's Christian Temperance Union were devoted to driving drink from American lives. The founder of the WCTU and the founder of the WCTU Chicago Temple are honored on this medal along with the Temple itself, at the time the tallest building in Chicago.

The medal:

Obverse: Two female busts left, FRANCES E. WILLARD,PRES.N.W.C.T.U. MATILDA B. CARSE FOUNDER OF THE TEMPLE / FOR GOD AND HOME AND EVERY LAND.
Reverse: Building, NATIONAL BUILDING OF THE WOMAN’S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION / THE TEMPLE CHICAGO / CORNER STONE LAID NOV. 1, 1890 / HEIGHT 262 FT / COST $1200,000.

51 mm

The Chicago chapter of the WCTU was denied use of the Chicago YMCA for their meetings in 1883 despite having met there for 9 years. They built their own building between 1890 and 1892, a 13 story office structure and meeting hall. They rented out offices to pay for the building. Unfortunately, the built on leased land and the first $40,000 of annual income went to pay the lease. They hoped to own the building outright, but they lost the building in 1903 and it was razed in 1926. This medal remains to memorialized the building designed by architects Burnham and Root, a magnificent structure that would likely survive to this day were it not for the failure of the WCTU to raise the funds needed to save it.

Gerald Johnson wrote a brief piece on the medal:

Noble Failure... The W.C.T.U. Chicago Temple. TAMS Journal 18(3):92-93 (June 1978)

You'd think someone, maybe a booze dealer, would've stepped in and bought the building. It seems like it would have been worth keeping rather than razing. What's at that location now?

They had share holders and could not pay off their debts on the building. My guess it that it was torn down for something bigger. Whatever that was is no longer there. The location is now the Chase Tower (nee Bank One Tower) completed in 1969, 60 stories tall, the ninth tallest in Chicago and the tallest inside the loop, at the center of the loop, distinctive for its curved, upsweeping design.

Interesting. So you need two more medals to commemorate all the buildings at this site