Temple of Fraternity
| File:Temple of Fraternity.png Temple of Fraternity | |
| Construction Cost | $65,000 (equivalent to $1,960,352 in 2021) |
|---|---|
This three-story building on The Trail was an impressive 225 x 65 foot and held 40 rooms. opening day May 20,1904.
Etymology
Before the Fair
The Temple of Fraternity at the St. Louis fair was the brainchild of Charles Folsom Hatfield, who was an ardent joiner of fraternities. At the time of the Fair, he was a member of the Masons, Odd Fellows, the Knights of Maccabees, the Royal Arcanum, the National Union, Modern Woodmen of America, Woodmen of the World, the Tribe of Ben Hur, and several other lesser known orders. Hatfield's plan for the fair pavilion united not just the Freemasons from across the U.S., but more than 60 different fraternal societies with a combined national membership of more than 8 million. Consider that the population of the country was 82 million at the time.
Description
The building was funded by 3,000,000 members of 50 individual fraternities. The building had an elaborately decorated rotunda, a reception room, a nursery, barbershop, a post office with telegraph, message station and telephone, a hospital ward, smoking and reading rooms, a 900 seat restaurant, and an information bureau. Two assembly halls on its third floor could hold 1,000 people each.
From a communication sent to all Masonic grand lodges by the Temple Association in 1902: “The Temple of Fraternity to be erected is an adaptation of the Parthenon of Athens, the standard of Greek architecture. It will be 200x300 feet surrounding a court which will be decorated as a tropical garden. It will be two stories high, with porticoes sixteen feet in depth on the exterior and interior, ornamented with Doric columns. Rooms will be set aside in this beautiful structure for all co-operating societies, where they will make their headquarters during the World’s Fair, and maintain a place for rendezvous and refreshment for the members from all parts of the country. The immense porticoes will be free for the use of all. Rooms will also be set aside for reading, writing, smoking, toilet purposes, ladies’ parlors, lounging, etc. Telephone, telegraph and postal service will be supplied, and a check room for parcels, as well as a free dispensary, attended by a board of competent physicians. The site selected for the Temple of Fraternity is one of the most commanding on World’s Fair grounds.”
After the Fair
It was supposed to be dismantled and shipped to New Mexico, to became the administration building for a new "National Fraternal Sanitarium for Consumptives" for the treatment of tuberculosis patients, supported by an association of fraternal organizations. But at the last moment, the Santa Fe Railroad turned over one of its railway resort hotels in Las Vegas, New Mexico for the sanitarium, and the Temple was demolished.
See also
Notes
References
The Journal of The Masonic Society, Issue #4 pg32
