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October–November 1882: Medinah was organized principally in the office of Noble Dr. Vincent Lumbard Hurlbut, at the intersection of State and Monroe Streets in Chicago.[1] Our dispensation petition and charter petition were ratified, our first potentate and divan were elected, and our first nobles were created and obligated in that office.[2]

The webmaster is currently researching the precise address of Noble Hurlbut’s medical office and will attempt to secure a photograph of the building. Please email any information you have on the subject to the webmaster. Thank you.

December 1882: Our first potentate, Illustrious Sir Edgar P. Tobey (also an original noble of Mecca Shriners[9] and the husband of Noble Vincent L. Hurlbut’s sister, Arizona[10]) held Medinah’s final administrative and procedural meetings of 1882 in the officers’ room of Battery D, 1st Illinois Light Artillery’s armoury[11] on Adams Street. Major Tobey had been Battery D’s commander[12] [presumably as a Captain or Lieutenant at that time].

The webmaster is currently researching the precise address of the Adams Street armoury and attempting to secure a photograph of the building. Please email any information you have on the subject to the webmaster. Thank you.

1883 – 1885: Our first permanent home was Oriental Hall on LaSalle Street south of Madison Street.[13] It was here on 30 March 1883, that the first Medinah Shrine Ceremonial was staged, complete with costumes and props, but without Potentate Tobey who was conducting a court-martial that day (Chief Rabban Dr. Marvin E. Smith presided).[14]

1885: Having outgrown Oriental Hall, we temporarily rented space in Corinthian Hall at 185 to 189 East [o.s.] 56 West [n.s.] Kinzie Street, whilst negotiating a lease with Apollo Commandery (see below).[15] Making due with the facilities in Corinthian Hall included rather questionable props. The Chicago Record-Herald reported “… here [at Corinthian Hall] some of the most illustrious citizens of Chicago ‘crossed the burning sands of the desert,’ the ‘burning sands’ consisting of cans, bottles and other junk with which the alleys of the neighbourhood were littered.”[16]

The webmaster is attempting to secure a photograph of Corinthian Hall. If you have images of this long lost building, please email them to the webmaster. Thank you.

The woodcut above originally appeared in The Land Owner, November 1872, published by J. M. Wing.[17]

The woodcarving above originally appeared in Illustrations of Greater Chicago, Chicago: J.M. Wing (1885), 9.[18]

The photo above depicts the exterior of the Monroe Asylum dressed for the 1910 Triennial Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the U.S.A. Photo courtesy of Apollo Commandery No. 1, Knights Templar.

1885–1895: Returning to within a city block from Noble Dr. Hurlbut’s office, we enjoyed suitable space, both in terms of size and quality, by leasing the Egyptian Room[19] of Apollo Commandery’s Monroe ‘Asylum’ (the Templar term for a lodge hall or preceptory) complex in the American Express Building[20] at 72-74-76-78 Monroe Street [o.s.] [21] (now approximately 23 to 33 West Monroe Street [n.s.]).[22] See the reflection of the Majestic Building’s distinctive terra cotta lower walls in the American Express Building’s windows in the photograph to the left. Designed by Henry Hobson Richardson for the American Express Company (f/k/a American Merchants’ Union Express Company), the building was constructed in 1872[23] in the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1871.

Interestingly, this building was also at the time the home of the Scottish Rite Valley of Chicago, whose leadership were enamoured with their stage facilities to such a point that they decided to make use of them to better illustrate the lessons of their degrees;[26] the stage productions were so successful that “Chicago-style” degrees were adopted by the Scottish Rite in both the Northern Jurisdiction and Southern Jurisdiction, and valleys all over bought scenery from Brother Joseph S. Sosman’s firm in Chicago to outfit their stages.[27]

1895–1903: The first home of our own was leased space in what became known as the Medinah Building at 181 [o.s.] 176 West [n.s.] Jackson Boulevard), bounded also by Fifth Avenue[28] (now, as before, Wells Street)[29] and Quincy Street. We occupied the top two floors, as well as the towers extending up two additional floors on each corner of the building. It was acclaimed an architectural nightmare in its time.[30]

1903–1912: The first “mosque” owned by Medinah Shriners was the limestone church building at 235 Dearborn Avenue [o.s.] (now 935 North Dearborn Street [n.s.]), which we purchased from Collier’s Unity Church[31], an offshoot of the Unitarian Church.[32] The cornerstone was laid on 29 August 1867, and all but the outer walls were destroyed on 9 October 1871, by the Great Chicago Fire.[33] Medinah Shriners purchased the building on 30 April 1903.[34] The $62,000 purchase price[35] was approximately equal to the cost of remodelling the former church for our use.[36] The building faces Washington Square Park, popularly known in the early 20th Century as “Bughouse Square.”[37] It was sold to the Scottish Rite Valley of Chicago by prior agreement when we moved.[38] This building, along with the adjoining buildings and townhouse mansions, continued to be used as the Scottish Rite Cathedral until 16 November 2006; and the massive 1875 mechanical-linkage E. & G.G. Hook & Hastings pipe organ – which the Medinah Shriners moved during the renovation from the east end where the pulpit had been in the building’s era as a church, to the balcony in the west[39] – is now Chicago’s oldest operative organ[40] and the city’s largest 19th Century organ.[41]

The so-called ”small preceptory” in the adjoining building the Scottish Rite built to the south of the church building, while not relevant per se to this page, as it did not house the Medinah Shriners, may be of interest to many visitors to this site. The small preceptory served as a lodge hall, chapter hall, council hall and commandery asylum until the property was turned over to developers on 19 December 2006. Views of the small preceptory can be viewed by clicking here.

1911: A site committee located the Judge Lambert Tree mansion. In March, the Medinah Shriners purchased the east half of the Tree estate. Six months later, on Halloween night, 1 November 1911 the cornerstone was laid for the Medinah Shriners’ auditorium and Shrine centre at 600 North Cass Avenue (now 600 North Wabash Avenue). We built a 4,200-seat, 100,000-plus square foot building with a dinning room to seat 2,300 people. The stage was 68 feet wide and extended 45 feet into the auditorium.[42]

Click here for more photographs inside and out. Note: Some of the photographs are rather large in size.

2001–2005: For four years, the Medinah Shriners were a band of nomads, with no permanent home of our own. While much of Medinah’s artefacts, costumes, and props languished in rented storage space, our Recorder and his staff administered Medinah from a simple office in an industrial park at 78 Eisenhower Lane North, in Lombard.

18 December 2002: Three new committees were selected: the Site Committee, Building Concept Committee, and Communications Committee.[52]

1 June 2004: [one century, one year, and one day after our purchase of the Dearborn Avenue property; (see above)] Following a presentation by the architects of a new building concept, Potentate Jack Zimmerman called for a standing vote by the assembled nobles at the stated meeting, who unanimously took to their feet and approved the architect’s plans and the expenditure of $10,600,000 (in addition to the cost of the land, which had already been purchased) to build Medinah’s new Shrine Centre at what was then 550 North Town Center Drive [now 550 North Shriners Drive], in Addison.[53]

This lovely facility is available for weddings, seminars, Bar/Bat Mitzvoth, banquets and other events. Click here to learn about Medinah Catering.

1921: Independently of the Medinah Shriners organisation, a group of Medinah Shriners bought four hundred acres on which they built a world-class country club for Shriners at what would become 6N001 Medinah Road in Medinah. With the economic realities of the Great Depression, membership was opened to non-Shriners, although Medinah Country Club> and the town that grew up around it both retain the name to this day. The cornerstone of the Moorish-themed clubhouse was laid in 1924, with dedication less than a year later.[55]

1929–1935: Like the Country Club, the Medinah Athletic Club was founded by Shriners of Medinah for themselves and their brethren, yet remained a separate entity from the Medinah Shriners organisation. Located at 505 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, the facility included a gymnasium, bowling alleys, driving range, sauna, an Olympic-sized pool, ballrooms, restaurants, conference rooms, and four hundred, forty-two sleeping rooms. Unlike the Country Club, the Athletic Club did not survive the Great Depression, going bankrupt in 1935.[56] The building, still bearing its distinctive onion dome, as well as many Shrine-themed architectural elements on the interior, is now the Hotel Intercontinental.

Owned by the Medinah Shriners, the Medinah Black Horse Troop Barn at 24W280 Saint Charles Road, in Carol Stream, has thirty-five stalls with both Troop horses and privately owned boarded horses. The Barn has an indoor arena, outdoor arena, pasture and direct access to trails, stalls cleaned daily, feeding twice a day, turn out available, wash rack, and group rides. It has a stable hand on duty twenty-four hours per day, and the barn manager oversees the grounds, vet and farriery care.[57]

1920: Following much debate and an impassioned “Bubbles” speech by Noble Forrest Adair (Yaarab Shrine, Atlanta), the Shriners of North America assembled for the 46th Imperial Council Session in Portland, Oregon, voted to found the Shriners Hospitals for Crippled Children (now Shriners Hospitals for Children).[58]

June 2004: The hospital was rededicated at the annual Hospital Day, marking both the opening of a new thirty-two million dollar wing, and the 80th anniversary of Medinah’s purchase of the land from which the hospital would sprout and serve so many children.[65]