1927 Membership Certificate- Medinah Athletic Club (505 N. Michigan) in Chicago, Illinois For Sale

Authentic red serial-numbered December xxxx membership certificate for the Medinah Athletic Club located at 505 N. Michigan on Chicago's Mag Mile at the current site of the Intercontinental Hotel. Certificate has a dollar-bill green border with a banner containing Club name across the top and an Egyptian pharaoh in full head garb at each end of the banner. Bottom center contains a gleaming fudgsicle-brown embossed seal containing Club name. At bottom, both the Club secretary and its president hand-sign this document, which was produced by the Western Bank Note and Engraving Company of Chicago.
Built during Chicago's spectacular building boom just prior to the xxxx stock market crash, the Shrine Organization commissioned this limestone-exterior architectural masterpiece designed by Walter Ahlschlager. The elegant Grand Ballroom, a two story, one hundred foot elliptical space, was decorated with ornaments in Egyptian, Assyrian and Greek styles and surrounded by a horseshoe shaped mezzanine. In its center hung a 12,000 pound Baccarat crystal chandelier, the largest in North America. The King Arthur Court was built as the men's smoking lounge and featured heavy timbering, stained glass, and a mural depicting the stories of King Arthur and Parsifal. The 8th floor's Indiana limestone facade was decorated by three large relief carvings carved by Leon Hermant in ancient Assyrian style of an old fortress in Mesopotamia in Xerxes time, about 5th century BC.
An exotic gold dome, Moorish in influence, topped the structure. Inside the dome, a glass cupola and spiral iron staircase resembling the top of a lighthouse led down to the hotel's upper elevator landing. In the tower beneath the great dome, the club featured a miniature golf course on the twenty-third floor, complete with water hazards and a wandering brook; also a shooting range, billiards hall, running track, gymnasium, archery range, bowling alley, two story boxing arena, and a junior Olympic size swimming pool - all this in addition to the ballrooms, meeting rooms, and 440 guest rooms which were available for the exclusive use of the club's 3,500 members and their guests. As a philosopher once said, "They just don't make 'em like that anymore".
Four years after the xxxx stock market crash, the Shrine Organization filed for bankruptcy and lost control of the building one year later. In the decade afterward, the building went through various incarnations, including a brief stint as residential apartments.
Document is in Excellent condition and measures 8 1/8 X 12 1/4 inches.