September 12, 2007

From Masonic Lodge to Buddhist Temple

For many years, this amazing building at Wilson and Ashland (built in 1899) served as the Ravenswood Club Building, a.k.a. the Paul Revere Masonic Lodge. A few years ago, when it was on the market, I feared for its existence. It was such a large building, in need of many repairs, and was sitting on a very desirable corner that was zoned for multi-unit structures.

Luckily, it was purchased by a Buddhist group before it could fall victim to the Chicago condo boom and is now the Truc Lam Buddhist Temple. The work they've done restoring it is incredible. A series of photos can be found on the Truc Lam site that show off the building in detail. For pictures of how it looked before, visit the Landmarks Illinois site.

3 comments:

Bialynia said...

That building looks great now! I was wondering if you knew what the Zephyr restaurant building used to be, and what it is going to become? I saw some work going on when I drove by last week.

Joanne said...

The Zephyr had been around for thirty or so years; before that, I'm not sure what was there. Does anyone else know?

VNikol said...

As a kid, I always wanted to go inside that place, having lived across the street. It somehow seemed out of place amid all the apartment buildings.

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