In 1909, Frank Lloyd Wright finished one of his many masterpieces, Unity Temple in Oak Park.
Since then, bronze letters reading “For the worship of God and the service of man” met guests at both entrances, a message from the famous architect about the importance of what was built.
But 101 years later, a thief ripped the words right off the wall.
Officials at Unity Temple are in a state of shock after about 50 bronze letters were stolen from outside the building last week. The letters were apparently pried off the temple, 875 Lake Street, sometime between 10 p.m. Sept. 28 and 9 a.m. Sept. 29. The letters, which are believed to be bronze possibly with other metals, are more than 100 years old.
“It’s disgusting,” said Emily Roth, executive director of the Unity Temple Restoration Foundation. “When you look at the building, there are still shadows where the letters used to be. It just feels like a horrible violation of the building.”
The initial police report said the loss is estimated at $80,000, but Roth said they are not yet sure exactly how much it will cost to replace. Both the foundation and the congregation are discussing how to replace the artifacts, and the congregation is in talks with the insurance company.
Unity Temple was designed by Wright and built in 1909, and was designated as a national historic landmark in 1971. The concrete structure was built to replace the previous temple, which was built in 1871 and burned down due to a lightning strike in 1905.
Gunny Harboe, president of Harboe Architecture, which did the recent restoration work on the temple and has worked on numerous Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, said that anything in or on the temple is of historical importance.
“The building is extremely significant,” he said. “It’s very disheartening somebody would do something like that.”
He said he wasn’t sure how much the letters would be worth due to their architectural significance or how much they would cost to replace. But because of his familiarity with the work, he doubts that there would be much profit in simply selling them for scrap, since the value is inherently in the connection to Wright.
“The true value is not the material, that’s the irony of it,” Harboe said. “The only way it would have any real value is if you told someone it was from Frank Lloyd Wright, then you would know where it was from.”
Carl Williams, owner of American Scrap Metal in Addison, said quality bronze is purchased at about $2.50 to $2.60 per pound. He said reputable scrapping companies have procedures to ensure they are not taking stolen materials. His company takes a driver’s license, vehicle registration and a picture of all materials if the police find it was stolen. If the material is suspicious, like century-old bronze letters, it would be flagged immediately and the police would be contacted.
“If something odd comes in, we flag it right way,” he said.
The industry has tightened up since a few years ago, when people would steal manhole covers to sell for scrap and some companies would take them no questions asked. He said nowadays it would be harder to sell something that is obviously suspicious, like the temple’s letters.
“Nobody wants to lose their business over a couple hundred dollars,” he said.
Roth said they are not sure if they will replace the letters with exact bronze replicas, or with a cheaper material that looks like bronze but is less likely to get stolen.
“We are in the very early stages of figuring out what to do next,” she said.
The letters are considered a Frank Lloyd Wright artifact, Roth said, and the phrase itself was meant to separate the spiritual side from the fellowship. The foundation just finished about $500,000 in restoration to the south end of the building.
Bronze, like copper, another metal frequently stolen, has high scrap value.
“But for the community, they are priceless,” Roth said.
