Even in the heart of the city, the streets are unpaved and the sidewalks are raised wooden boards. Under construction on the southeast corner of Clark and Washington is the First Methodist Episcopal Church building, which opened for worship on December 5, 1858. The First Methodist Church used the top two of the building's four floors as its sanctuary, while renting out the first floor to stores, the second floor as offices. The structure was rebuilt after the fire, to be replaced by its owners in 1923 with the Chicago Temple, another combined office building and church, whose twenty-one stories are topped with an eight-story Gothic spire.
