1946 Bahá'í House of Worship Wilmette Illinois Words of Baháʼu'lláh Program

Description

1946 Bahá'í House of Worship Wilmette Illinois Program of Public Meetings July-August 1946 and a souvenir card. See photos for more details.
The Baháʼí House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois (orChicago Baháʼí Temple) is a Baháʼí temple in Wilmette, Illinois. It is thesecond Baháʼí House of Worship ever constructed and the oldest surviving. It isone of eight continental temples, constructed to serve all of North America.[2]
The temple was designed by French-Canadian architect LouisBourgeois (1856–1930), who received design feedback from ʻAbdu'l-Bahá during avisit to Haifa in 1920. To convey the Baháʼí principle of the unity ofreligion, Bourgeois incorporated a variety of religious architecture andsymbols. Although ʻAbdu'l-Bahá participated in a ground-breaking ceremony in1912 that laid a cornerstone, construction began in earnest in the early 1920sand was delayed significantly through the Great Depression and World War II.Construction picked up again in 1947, and the temple was dedicated in aceremony in 1953.
Baháʼí Houses of Worship are intended to include severalsocial, humanitarian, and educational institutions clustered around the temple,although none have been built to such an extent. The temples are not intended asa local meeting place, but are instead open to the public and used as adevotional space for people of any faith.