100 Linden Ave., Wilmette, Illinois. County/parish: Cook.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places May 23, 1978. NRIS 78001140.
1 contributing building.Also known as:
The Baháʼí House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois (or Chicago Baháʼí Temple), is a Baháʼí temple. It is the second Baháʼí House of Worship constructed and the oldest one still standing. It is one of eight continental temples, constructed to serve all of North America.
The temple was designed by French-Canadian architect Louis Bourgeois (1856–1930), who received design feedback from ʻAbdu'l-Bahá during a 1920 visit to Haifa. To convey the Baháʼí principle of the unity of religion, Bourgeois incorporated a variety of religious architecture and symbols. Although ʻAbdu'l-Bahá participated in a groundbreaking ceremony in 1912 that laid a cornerstone, construction began in earnest in the early 1920s and was significantly delayed by the Great Depression and World War II. Construction resumed in 1947, and the temple was dedicated in a ceremony in 1953.
Baháʼí Houses of Worship are intended to include several social, humanitarian, and educational institutions clustered around the temple, although none have been built to such an extent. The temples are not intended as local meeting places but are open to the public and used as devotional spaces for people of any faith.
(read more...)National Park Service documentation: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892386