This beautiful Bahá'í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois, just north of Evanston, is one of only eight Bahá'í temples in the world at present, the oldest Bahá'í temple still standing and the only in the United States.
This unique structure stands for unity and invites prayer. While each temple has its own distinctive design, they all conform to a consistent theme: An area of gardens encircles a nine-sided structure covered by a single majestic dome, symbolizing the unity of all people and religions.
So how did Illinois come to have one of the world’s only Bahá'í temples? The idea to build the place of worship originated by a group of Bahá'ís in Chicago in the early 1900s, around the same time the first House of Worship was being built in present-day Turkmenistan. Chicagoan Corinne Knight True had recently visited the leader of the religion on a pilgrimage overseas. He was given the blessing to construct the place of worship, and advised to build it in a quiet area near Lake Michigan rather than busy Chicago.
The House of Worship in Wilmette was dedicated in 1953 after more than 30 years of construction. Converting French-Canadian architect Louis Bourgeois' drawings—some requiring 109-foot long sheets of paper—into durable ornamentation resulted in an innovative process of casting concrete panels composed of quartz crystal and white cement. Hundreds of precisely sized and fitted sections were hung on the temple's steel superstructure to form the temple's intricate, lacy exterior.
Today the structure is listed in the United States Register of Historic Places and has been designated as one of the Seven Wonders of Illinois.