The Temple of Music

DESIGNED BY ESENWEIN & JOHNSON

THE south front of the Temple of Music faces on the East Esplanade, the east front upon the Main Court. It corresponds on the general plan to the Ethnology Building, which occupies the corresponding position on the east side of the Main Court, and the motif of its design is similar. The ground-plan of the building is Square, being 150 feet on a side. It is surmounted by a dome 180 feet high, suggestive in proportions of the dome of the Pantheon at Rome. In treatment the building is highly ornate. It is profusely decorated with pilasters sculptured in relief, and over each of the four pediments is a sculptured group by Konti. The auditorium of the building seats twenty-two hundred people, and contains one of the largest organs built in the United States. The building is used for musical recitals and choruses.

The Temple of Music also has the infamous distinction of being the building in which President William McKinley was shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz on Sept. 6, 1901.

Note: A more detailed and profusely illustrated discussion of the Temple of
Music may be found in Music and Musicians at the Pan-American Exposition.

Reference

1.Text quoted directly from the Art Hand-Book, Official Handbook of Architecture and Sculpture and Art Catalogue to the Pan-American Exposition. Ed. David Gray. Buffalo, N.Y.: David Gray, 1901. Sources of the images are noted with each.

Return to top
Return to Buildings at the Pan-American Exposition