ding religious systems.

Scarcely less significant has been the erection of the superstructure and
the completion of the exterior ornamentation of the first
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the West, the noblest of the exploits which have
immortalized the services of the American Baha'i community to the Cause of
Baha'u'llah. Consummated through the agency of an efficiently functioning
and newly established Administrative Order, this enterprise has itself
immensely enhanced the prestige, consolidated the strength and expanded
the subsidiary institutions of the community that made its building
possible.

Conceived forty-one years ago; originating with the petition spontaneously
addressed, in March 1903 to 'Abdu'l-Baha by the "House of Spirituality" of
the Baha'is of Chicago--the first Baha'i center established in the Western
world--the members of which, inspired by the example set by the builders of
the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of I_sh_qabad, had appealed for permission to
construct a similar Temple in America; blessed by His approval and high
commendation in a Tablet revealed by Him in June of that same year;
launched by the delegates of various American Assemblies, assembled in
Chicago in November, 1907, for the purpose of choosing the site of the
Temple; established on a national basis through a religious corporation
known as the "Baha'i Temple Unity," which was incorporated shortly after
the first American Baha'i Convention held in that same city in March,
1909; honored through the dedication ceremony presided over by
'Abdu'l-Baha Himself when visiting that site in May, 1912, this
enterprise--the crowning achievement of the Administrative Order of the
Faith of Baha'u'llah in the first Baha'i century--had, ever since that
memorable occasion, been progressing intermittently until the time when
the foundations of that Order having been firmly laid in the North
American continent the American Baha'i community was in a position to
utilize the instruments which it had forged for the efficient prosecution
of its task.

At the 1914 American Baha'i Convention the purchase of the Temple property
was completed. The 1920 Convention, held in New York, having been
previously directed by 'Abdu'l-Baha to select the design of that Temple,
chose from among a number of designs competitively submitted to it that of
Louis J. Bourgeois, a French-Canadian architect, a selection that was
later confirmed by 'Abdu'l-Baha Himself. The contracts for the