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Bahá’í House of Worship
A lace-like temple on the shore of Lake Michigan
Rising from a lawn in Wilmette, Illinois, just north of Chicago, the Bahá'í House of Worship looks like a white dome spun from lace. It is the oldest Bahá'í house of worship still standing anywhere in the world, the second ever built and the first in the Western Hemisphere. Its cornerstone was laid in 1912 during a visit by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, son of the faith's founder, but construction took decades, and the temple was dedicated in 1953.
The design by French-Canadian architect Louis Bourgeois is built around the number nine, a Bahá'í symbol of completeness: nine entrances, nine alcoves, nine dome sections and nine fountains in the surrounding gardens. Its intricate ornament is cast concrete mixed with crushed quartz, which makes the building glow white in sunlight, and symbols of many religions are worked into its pillars. Open to people of all faiths, the temple has no clergy and no sermons, only readings and music, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.